Are We Not Equally Blind?
by 5BloodyRoses
Summary: "Darkness and light are equally blinding and consuming." Ally or foe? Compassionate or apathetic? Good or Evil? For Ren, morality, what is just and fair, humans and demons, right and wrong are all the same, an endless blur of grey. But this isn't something that the Reikai Tantei agree with. Other than my OC's, the characters within this belong to their respective owners.
1. Chapter 1

AN: The beginning of this story takes place after Reikai Tantei managed to save Yukina, but before the Dark Tournament.

Yusuke was sleeping peacefully after another successful mission and was dreaming (having nightmares) about his training with Genkai, causing his eye to twitch slightly in his sleep as he mumbled incoherently about "sadistic grannies". Yusuke's "peaceful" slumber was brought to a jarring stop when he was abruptly woken up by Botan who was "gently" shaking him to rouse him from his sleep.

"Yusuke...Yusuke...wake up...WAKE UP YUSUKE THIS IS IMPORTANT!" Botan shouted as she "gently" shook the Spirit Detective awake.

"Huh? Botan? What the hell are you doing here? Goddammit, I was sleeping!" Yusuke yelled furiously at the blue haired reaper, confused by her sudden appearance.

"This isn't the time for sleep right now, Koenma's got another case for you an-" Botan spoke urgently and quickly, silently wishing that Yusuke would just listen and do as he was told for once.

"Another one?! I just solved one for that stupid baby! Can't this wait till morni-" Yusuke shouted indignantly, jumping up from his bed.

He was, understandably, angry since it was 11 'o' clock at night and it was the weekend. Between juggling his job (which he wasn't paid to do) and junior high (which he skipped 90% of the time), Yusuke was wiped out and felt like he deserved some R 'n' R.

Okay, Yusuke _did_ deserve a break for fighting (and almost dying) the Toguro brothers and their demon triad. But it'd been a week since the fight, which was, in the eyes of Reikai, plenty of time for him to rest (well…in reality, it's not a lot of time, but when one considered how little strenuous activity Yusuke _actually_ does, it is) especially since he doesn't really do much besides skipping school as much as he can, play games in the arcade and beating up some other (normal) teenagers his age (and older). Plus, for Yusuke, fighting normal, and more importantly, human teenage boys was not difficult _before_ he died, much less now. So really in the grand scheme of things, Yusuke moaning about his work wasn't entirely justified. (In the eyes of Reikai and Botan). However to Yusuke, who was a lazy slacker, it was perfectly justifiable for him to kick up a fuss about being ordered to work in the middle of the night. (Not that Yusuke would ever actually admit to being a lazy slacker, but he'll never dispute it.)

"No Yusuke, it can't! Koenma said that this case is of utmost importance! Kurama and Hiei are already with Koenma already and we cannot waste any more time waiting for you!" Botan interrupted Yusuke, she was tired of his whining already and wished that Yusuke would actually think about his responsibility as Spirit Detective for once and just understand that Koenma needed his help. Yusuke, surprised by Botan's outburst, grudgingly agreed.

This was mostly because he actually valued his hearing and didn't want Botan screeching at him so late at night. He wouldn't be surprised if she had woken his relatively new neighbours with her caterwauling, which didn't bode well for him because they could potentially spend the rest of the night or the next day asking his hungover mother why they heard a girl screaming in their flat, or alternatively call the police because they might think that someone is being murdered. That being said, Yusuke was a little curious to know just what was important enough for Koenma to call him so late at night.

After (reluctantly) agreeing, Yusuke told Botan to wait as he dressed and left his flat to go wake Kuwabara (all while complaining every few minutes in his loud and obnoxious voice).

~mini time skip~

At Koenma's office

"Alright pacifier breath, what's so important that you woke me up in the middle of the night?" Yusuke asked

Ignoring Yusuke's insult, Koenma got straight to the point and brought up the image of a young male around Yusuke and Kuwabara's age who wore light blue and white Chinese style fighter clothing (similar to the ones Kurama wore in the Dark tournament only it has a hood) with the hood covering the majority of their head leaving only their face and black fringe visible. The male appeared to be quite short with pale skin which made his dark hair stand out even more. One of the most striking part of him was the red marking on his forehead, just above his eyebrows that was in the shape of a Chinese lotus blossom. The other was his heterochromia eyes, with the left eye being a deep green and the other a beautiful dark blue. His eyes were larger and wider than the eyes of most men, but were narrower than a females. Overall, his face was well proportioned and rather androgynous, but his figure was a little feminine as it was slim and lithe. In Yusuke and Kuwabara's opinion, they looked even more feminine than Kurama. Actually, Yusuke and Kuwabara assumed the person on the screen was a guy, and they would never actually say that Kurama looked like a girl to his face.

"This apparition is Ren, according to our files and is rumored to be a Sacred Spirit. This would usually mean that he's from Spirit World, but what little we have on file about him isn't exactly well documented. Some of our sources from the file claims that he is a demon from the Makai, not a Sacred Spirit." Koenma began, and looked, despite his incredibly youthful appearance, stressed with dark circles beginning to form under his eyes.

"Woah, hold up!" Yusuke blurted out with his customary frown of anger mixed with confusion.

"Yes Yusuke?" Koenma replied with a deep breath, a reminder for himself to be patient with the fourteen year old spirit detective.

"Uh, what's a Sacred Spirit? And what's the difference between a spirit and a demon?" Yusuke asked. This kind of question had been nagging at him for a while since he was sure that Kurama and Hiei were demons, and Botan was the grim reaper (but not considered a demon) and honestly no one had stopped to actually explain the difference in race, if there was any.

"Well Yusuke, a Sacred Spirit tends to be or usually are the children of the older spirits in Spirit World or the ancient 'Gods' of Ningenkai. Those gods are from the oldest and strongest spirits in Spirit World their equivalence for human standards would be Celestial beings. Now normal Sacred Spirits, and I'm using this term quite loosely, are bound to different shrines in human or Spirit World or to stronger apparitions in Spirit World." Koenma said, beginning his explanation. "Are you following me so far?" Konema asked, trying to minimize the amount of questions caused by Yusuke or Kuwabara's confusion.

"Okay, yeah I'm followin'." Yusuke said, while Kuwabara nodded.

"Good, now, Sacred Spirits are contractually bound to the shrine or apparition until:

The God or Shrine owner, or apparition dismisses them.

The God or shrine itself become dilapidated due to no one believing in the God anymore.

They die while serving the one they are bound to.

In the rare possibility that they go rogue, and kill the one they are bound to and leave." Koenma finished looking at Yusuke and Kuwabara, waiting for them to process and understand the information he has just told them.

"Has Ren gone rogue?" Kurama asked, frowning slightly in apprehension. He knew that killing an apparition that was of God status in Ningenkai was a great offence, and if Ren was successful in doing so, he would be a formidable opponent.

"Thankfully no, well at least I'm thankful right now anyway. In order for Ren to have gone rogue, then he would have had to be in contract with an apparition or shrine that we are aware of and, from our research, no shrine or apparition in Spirit World has undertaken a contract with Ren." Koenma explained to the fox spirit.

"Then why the hell are we here?!" Yusuke shouted in frustration.

"If you let me finish, you'll find out." Koenma said rather tetchily, sucking on his dummy, making tsking sounds at Yusuke's impatience. "The reason why I have called you all here is not for Ren's crimes."

"WHAT?!" Kuwabara and Yusuke shouted in anger and surprise. "You mean you woke us up for nothing!?"

Botan blinked in surprise.

"But Koenma, you said this was a matter of great importance…If Ren hasn't committed a crime, then why…" She asked in confusion.

"Because in reality, Ren's files in Spirit World are…there's so little information it not even be a file. According to Spirit World, he has committed no crime, yet he has been imprisoned here in Spirit World for centuries under my father's orders in the highest security cell we have, even the three treasures don't get as much security as he does." Koenma sighed, suddenly looking centuries older than he appeared. "However, 10 years ago, somehow, Ren was able to escape and, although he was weakened by the escape, he managed to disappear somewhere within Ningenkai."

At this statement the Reikai Tantei's heads all turned sharply to stare incredulously at Koenma while Botan stood open mouthed in shock.

"He was able to escape." Hiei stated as he shared a look with Kurama whose face was unreadable and looked back at the toddler prince. Hiei couldn't help but feel a little impressed if Ren had escaped the cell Hiei was thinking about. Holy Talismans to trap both demons and spirits, chains that restrained and sucked an apparitions spirit energy and round the clock security. Although, Hiei did scoff at the security, what little they had, in Spirit World.

Koenma closed his eyes in worry as he continued. "Yes Hiei, he was able to escape unharmed despite all the holy talismans that we had used to contain him."

"So he escaped, big deal, I don't see why you're so anxious about." Yusuke scoffed, right now, he didn't care if a dragon had escaped, Koenma seemed to have woken him up for nothing and he wanted to go back to sleep.

"Shut up Urameshi! Can't you see that this is important! If he could break out of prison, who knows how strong he is?!"

"If Ren has escaped for so long, why wasn't Ren apprehended at the time? Surely it would have been wiser for you to take advantage of the situation and his weakness?" Kurama asked, his brows furrowing, something about this case didn't make sense and it didn't sit well with him.

"I honestly don't know." Koenma admitted after a few moments with a deep sigh. "At the time there was so much hullaballoo about his escape but when I started making preparations to send people after him, my father stopped me. Even a few years ago, when I suggested that we go after him, my father just ignored it, like he didn't even want to think about it. But now he's ordered for Ren's retrieval."

"Well that's stupid." Yusuke said, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

"Yeah, makes more sense to get 'em when they bust out." Kuwabara commented lowly after he had calmed down.

Hiei silently agreed with the two of them. _'Looks like the two fools are using their heads for once.'_ He thought and wondered, for a moment just how long this moment would last, silently scoffing when Kuwabara opened his mouth to speak.

"…So…What do you want us to do?" Kuwabara asked after a few moments.

' _Apparently not long.'_ Hiei thought, unsure whether he should be annoyed or disappointed by his stupidity…or both.

"I, or rather my father, needs the four of you to track down Ren and bring him back here." Koenma answered him looking the group in the eyes, before looking away.

After a few minutes of silence, Yusuke and Kuwabara agreed to find the missing "convict" and turned to return back to their homes, sleep and start searching for Ren in the morning. Hiei and Kurama waited until Yusuke and Kuwabara had set off with Botan before looking Koenma's in the eyes and began their inquisition.

"What's the real reason we were called here Koenma? I know you don't want us to just capture him. Besides, you have told us nothing about this Ren, what are you hiding from us?" Hiei 'asked' (demanded). His gaze, along with Kurama's was so intense that Koenma couldn't continue looking them in the eye anymore. Koenma looked back down to his desk with his eyes closed, choosing his words carefully before steeling himself and looking back up to the two demons.


	2. Chapter 2 The case continues

After Yusuke and Kuwabara woke up the following morning, all four of Reikai Tantei walked around the streets of Sayarashiki looking around them to try and find someone who matched the profile of Ren whilst their senses were on high alert for any kind of spirit energy. As they were walking, mostly in silence (so far) Hiei thought back to his conversation with Koenma.

~FLASHBACK~

""What's the real reason we were called here Koenma? I know you don't want us to just capture him. Besides, you have told us nothing about this Ren, what are you hiding from us?" "Hiei 'asked' (demanded). His gaze, along with Kurama's was so intense that Koenma couldn't continue looking them in the eye anymore.

"It's true that it's my father's orders for you to retrieve Ren, but the fact is I don't know why my father wants him to be brought here now, or what his crime was. I've asked my father before, but he won't tell me anything about him, or anything more about this situation." Koenma sighed.

Hiei narrowed his eyes at the toddler, he was running out of patience and the lack of information wasn't helping.

"So you expect us to blindly scour Ningenkai with the slightest sliver of hope that we find this Ren and bring him back here for no apparent reason other than escaping and without any information about him? Do you really take me for a fool Koenma?" Hiei scoffed as he turned and began to walk away, dismissing the toddler prince as he did so. Koenma and Kurama stared after the half fire demon half korime, Koenma closed his eyes in concentration before speaking, hoping to catch Hiei before he left his office.

"Aiding in the capture of Ren will reduce your parole time _**IF**_ both you and Kurama work with Yusuke and Kuwabara. But you will just have to trust me Hiei."

Upon hearing this, Hiei paused for half a second made a grunting sound of agreement and carried on walking, now with Kurama in tow with a look of deep concentration on his symmetrical face. From what Hiei could tell, it wasn't like they had much of a choice, until the case was over and their parole ended, they were stuck under Koenma and Reikai's thumb for however long Rekai sees fit.

~FLASHBACK END~

Hiei's P.O.V

The blissful silence that had fallen on us as we fruitlessly searched for the elusive Ren, (not that they had actually done much searching) something which I had fully expected. It's not like Koenma had given us any information to go off of and if it wasn't got that stupid Koenma I wouldn't have even been wasting my time doing something so pointless. The wonderful silence that bellied the undertones of annoyance that had surrounded us was broken by the fool Kuwabara.

"Sooooooo...does anyone have an idea where this guy could be? Or where we should go to find this guy?"

The idiot Detective stopped as he considered the fools words, it looked like actually thinking for once is quite painful for him.

"Of course we don't." The detective scoffed angrily, since that seems to be the main emotion he can actually comprehend on a daily basis without hurting himself. "I mean it's not like we know anything about what's going on, or where this guy's hiding. And it's not like he's just gonna wander around town an' lettin' himself get caught, 'cause that's freakin' stupid."

I was a little surprised by the detective's words; it looks like he's actually using his brain again. If this carries on he might actually hurt himself. I looked at Kurama and saw that he was still deep in thought. He hadn't said a word since Koenma briefed us on the case; he's been far too quiet for my liking. The Fox is usually thinking of some plan for us to use or spouting information about our enemy or target. Not that it's that irritating since the fool and detective need all the help they can get.

"Hey, Kurama, is somethin' wrong? Why're you bein' all quiet? You feelin' okay?" The detective asked. Again, I'm a little surprised that he even noticed, but from the looks of it, and the fact that the fool doesn't look as vacant as he normally does, so has Kuwabara. Usually Yusuke doesn't even notice all that much unless he's fighting or it has something to do with that onna, Keiko. I watched in silence as Kurama seemed to come to his senses, nodding his head to assure the detective and fool of his good health. He looked surprised to be standing in the street with us. I narrowed my eyes at his reaction to Yusuke's question, he must know more about "Ren" than he's letting on, there's no other reason for him to be so quiet.

~Third person P.O.V~

"Hey Kurama, you're old, right?" Yusuke asked hesitantly not wanting to piss off the deceptively passive fox demon.

"Well...Yes, you could say that my spirit is quite old, yes." Kurama replied slowly, he wasn't exactly sure where Yusuke was going with this question but he knew that there was a point to it...somewhere.

"I mean, you're older than Hiei, right?" Yusuke continued looking into Kurama glittering green eyes as he spoke.

"Yes, as Yoko Kurama I am much older than Hiei. Why do you ask?"

"Then you should know something about this Ren guy, right? I mean yeah he's over seven hundred years old, right? But you should know something about him, like some kind of legend or some thing? What about you Hiei, know anything about this guy?" Yusuke asked. Hiei was a little taken aback that Yusuke had asked him and not just Kurama, and pleasantly surprised that Yusuke had caught on to what Hiei had been speculating. (Well not completely, on a similar vein but it's better than nothing.)

Kuwabara, in his usual fashion, exclaimed loudly and agreed with Yusuke and asked Kurama different questions about Ren. There was no way in hell that Kuwabara was going to ask Hiei anything. The reason being that if he did, in Kuwabara's mind, Hiei would insult him and his intelligent and race, act smug about knowing something or hearing about Ren before speaking condescendingly as he tells him everything he knows. To be honest he isn't wrong, that is what Hiei would have done. Now that Hiei thought about it, Ren was ringing some very faint bells for Hiei; he just couldn't remember why it did. Hiei was absolutely sure that he had never met Ren before. He decided to shrug it off for now, but that "ringing" sensation refused to be pushed aside, so Hiei just tried to ignore the niggling feeling for now. No matter, Hiei reasoned, he would remember at some point.

"It's nothing, but Ren looked familiar, that's all." Kurama answered Yusuke and Kuwabara.

"You mean you knew him?! D-Did you two work together in the past? Is that why he was in jail?" Kuwabara spluttered in shock while Hiei rolled his eyes huffing silently at Kuwabara's antics.

Yusuke was shocked at the possibility of Kurama having worked with Ren. In Yusuke's mind that meant one thing: if he did fight Ren...it would probably lead to his death...again. However Yusuke, having a certain understanding of the red head, didn't jump to any conclusions like Kuwabara and understood that if that truly was the case that Kurama had previously worked with Ren then Kurama would know where to find him and warn them of how dangerous his old partner is or would be.

"No, it's nothing like that, we've never worked together Kuwabara, but I believe I may have met Ren while I was Yoko Kurama." Kurama reassured the tall ginger as he sweat dropped, trying not to laugh at how dramatic Kuwabara was being. "It's probably nothing, it's likely that I've just passed him by once or twice, or that he has one those faces that you can mistake for someone else."

Hearing Kurama's words of reassurance Yusuke and Kuwabara nodded their heads feeling a slight disbelief at his words. Normally they would have just accepted what Kurama was saying, but how could they when Kurama didn't seem to completely believe what he was telling them?

"So does anyone have any idea what we should do now? It's not like we're gonna find him when we're just standin' here." Kuwabara asked/grumbled. Yusuke shook his head in frustration and Kurama responded saying "not at the moment." Hiei just scoffed at Kuwabara's question.

"What's that for?! At least I'm tryin' to help!" Kuwabara shouted in anger. "It's not like you've been doin' anything to help us find this guy!"

"There isn't anything to do fool." Hiei drawled. "Koenma has told us nothing of substance about Ren that we can use in order for us to find him."

Kuwabara flushed red in anger at Hiei's haughty drawl, but was thankfully interrupted by Yusuke.

"Doesn't Koenma usually point us in the general direction, or just tell us where we need to go? Like when he sent me after Kurama and Hiei he said that you guys would be somewhere in uptown, not just somewhere in or around the Saryashki area." Yusuke asked Kurama, whilst also glancing at Kuwabara and Hiei; silently telling them that now was not the right time to be arguing about this. (This was mostly because the longer it takes for them to find Ren, the less time he has using his weekend to do…stuff, various legal and illegal stuff.)

Kurama nodded in agreement, inwardly grateful that Yusuke was able to divert Kuwabara and Hiei's attention to the matter at hand. "In most cases yes, however it seems that King Enma is reluctant to tell Koenma anything more than we know about this case."

"So what can we do now?" Kuwabara asked scratching his head.

"Hell if I know." Yusuke grumbled. "Just sounds like Reikai just wanted to send us on some wild goose chase or somethin'."

Suddenly Yusuke stopped grumbling and moaning and looked up at Kurama.

"Wait, back at Koenma's you knew what Koenma was saying about Sacred Ghosts or whatever going 'rogue', so do you know more about those Sacred Ghost guys?" Yusuke asked Kurama, hoping that Kurama knew _something_ that would actually move things along.

"I know somethings about Sacred Spirits but nothing that is too in depth. Based on that information, we should be able to have a general idea of where to look at least." Kurama said thoughtfully, to the relief of Kuwabara and Yusuke. "First, from what Koenma has told us, what do you three understand about Sacred Spirits, and what questions do you have? It'll be much quicker if we are all…up to speed with the information."

"Er, I got everythin' Koenma said about Sacred Spirit's having a contract is kinda being like those ghosts in movies and stories being bound to a spot or house or somethin' 'cause that's where they died, right?" Kuwabara said, scratching the back of his head, feeling a little uncomfortable. He felt like he was being called up in class by his teacher.

Kurama blinked, thinking over Kuwabara's way to describe the contract and nature of Sacred Spirits. "Well…in a way, yes, it's slightly different but yes. So do you have any questions?"

"Yeah, what's the difference between a ghost and a Sacred Spirit? And what's the contract anyway? Koenma made it sound really important?"

"Yeah, why do they need to have a contract anyway? What's the big deal?" Yusuke chimed in.

"Well the difference between a ghost and Sacred Spirit is that ghosts who are bound to a certain area are the result of a violent death of some kind. Sacred Spirits, as stated by Koenma are actually born from old and powerful apparitions or other Sacred Spirits." Kurama explained. "Sacred Spirits, unlike ghosts, choose to be in a contract, or in some cases offer to form a contract with someone. The reason for the use of contracts is a part of their nature because at birth Sacred Spirits are fragile creatures, possibly even more so than human babies."

"What do you mean?" Yusuke asked, frowning. Kuwabara and Hiei were equally surprised, not that Hiei actually let too much surprise show on his face. "If they're born from old and strong Spirits or whatever, then shouldn't they be like super babies or somethin'?"

"In theory, yes, however, the fact is Sacred Spirit children are incredibly physically weak, mentally and intellectually they are beyond that of normal humans and are on par with most demon children." Kurama continued. "In fact as a part of their physiology that is unique to their 'race' of apparitions that as children, they require being surrounded by large amounts of spiritual energy along with the energy of their parents and physical affection such as being held and cared for."

"Okay, so if they aren't looked after properly they don't grow properly? What's this got to do with contracts?" Yusuke asked in confusion, trying to take in everything that Kurama was teaching them.

"Well, no. Their fragility and physiology is the main reason for the contracts. If they do not grow in such conditions they are likely to die. Being in a contract means that the child is monitored which ensures that their needs are met by the Shrines or Gods their parents are contracted to. This ensures that such children are born and raised in surrounding where they are safest and can be kept alive. As they grow, their spiritual strength can be immense, so being under a contract will allow them to be taught and mentored to use and control their powers properly. It is a part of their nature."

Kurama gave the others a few minutes to take in what he had said, watching as they slowly (Yusuke and Kuwabara) began to connect the dots between what they now know about Sacred Spirits and what little Koenma had told them about Ren.

"Wait, so if Ren's never been in a contract before or ever, then that's a bad thing, right?" Kuwabara asked, feeling a cold roiling feeling in his gut at the thought.

"Yes, the fact that Ren has never been taught or monitored by Reikai is both unusual and troubling." Kurama agreed, by his tone of voice, it sounded more like a warning to the others. Hiei's eyebrow twitched slightly as he realised just why Kurama had been so quiet since they had been debriefed (not that it was much of a debriefing beyond being told that they need to bring in a person, here's what they look like, what we think they are. We have no real idea what's going on or where they are or how strong or weak they may be, but I'm partially sure you won't die, now off you pop!)

"Then what are we doing just standing here?! We should be tryin' to find him! If he hasn't been taught right and he's broken out of prison, who knows what he could be plannin' on doing!" Kuwabara exclaimed loudly, attracting the attention of many onlookers who were now looking at the four of them a little worried and questioning whether they needed to call the authorities.

"Obviously he doesn't pose that much of a threat to Ningenkai, fool, if he was don't you think he would have acted by now? He's had ten years to recuperate and make a plan; by all accounts he should have already started his plans for Ningenkai." Hiei scoffed, _even the idiot Detective would have worked that out_ , he thought. He looked to Kurama to be the voice of reason; he didn't want to continue to hear the hysterical and idiotic ramblings of humans. Kuwabara looked ready to retort, when Kurama decided to diffuse the fight and interject.

"No, Hiei's right." Kurama said with a slight nod. Yusuke and Kuwabara looked a little surprised which made Hiei scowl in annoyance.

' _It's not that hard to figure out.'_ Thought Hiei. _'Considering their lower intelligence, however, I wouldn't be surprised if they forgot their own names.'_

"Think about it. If Ren did want to hatch a diabolical plan for Ningenkai, even considering his weakness from escaping, ten years would be enough time for someone as old as Ren to recover his full strength and carry out his plan. Until now, there have been no signs of panic or disturbances. I think it's safe to say that Ren means this world no harm."

After hearing Kurama speak Hiei's eyes widened in realisation at what Kurama had unknowingly admitted. Hiei decided that the moment Yusuke and Kuwabara left, and he had a chance to corner Kurama, he was going to get Kurama to tell him everything.

Yusuke considered Kurama's words and nodded in approval and felt a slight pang of disappointment. Yusuke's reasoning was simple: if Ren didn't pose a threat to Ningenkai, then he didn't pose a threat to them, therefore Ren wouldn't try to fight them, which means that Yusuke wouldn't get the chance to fight the over seven hundred year old, but surprisingly youthful looking Ren.

"Even with this information, it still doesn't tell us where we can go to find him." Hiei said closing his eyes and huffing, hating how slowly this was going.

"If you let me continue Hiei I would be able to do that." Kurama said with a slight smile at Hiei's look of aggravation at being called out on his impatience. "Based on Ren's physiology, and in the weakened state escaping from such a prison, our best bet would be places or beings with high amounts of Spiritual energy and since Koenma has pinpointed that Ren should be in this area, we can cross out the rest of Japan."

"Okay so that would leave shrines, us and Genkai." Yusuke concluded, ticking off his fingers as he listed the only options that came to mind. "Since he ain't here we can rule us out. And I've never seen anyone else at Grandma's so I'm sure that ones a bust. So where's the nearest shrine?"

~timeskip~

After spending the entire day searching in the different shrines in the area, which Kuwabara and Yusuke were both surprised to see there was a shrine in the area let alone multiple ones; Yusuke was fairly annoyed at the lack of results.

"Oi, Kurama I thought you said he's attracted to places with Spirit energy?" Yusuke shouted as the group walked down the street. Kurama nodded his head as Yusuke continued to vent his frustration at the fox demon. "Then where the hell is he?!"

Yusuke's and profanity filled rant was cut short when a scream and the screech of tyres were heard. All four began running down the street to where a small crowd had gathered. In the middle of the road was a van with the driver stood at the front stuttering about seeing a small white rabbit with some shop keepers who had seen the event agreeing with him and checking to see if he was alright.

"Hey, what happened?" Kuwabara asked a shopkeeper who looked to be around her early fifties with greying hair.

"That young man was driving down the street when a little white rabbit hopped onto the road. I saw his van stop and thought that he had run the poor thing over, but when I went to check, it'd vanished!" The elderly shopkeeper gushed to the group. Hiei hmphed and muttered about the poor eyesight of humans.

"I can assure you, young man, my eyes are as good as they were twenty years ago!" The old lady admonished the shorter male before turning around and grumbling about the poor manners of 'youngsters' these days. Hiei scowled in response and began looking at the road once more.

'Hiei, do you think it's him?' Hiei heard Kurama ask him telepathically, to which he only nodded in response while ignoring Yusuke and Kuwabara's snickering at the shorter male being scolded by an old lady.

Unbeknownst to the group a small figure had been watching them, sniffing the breeze and assessing the different scents that it held. Their arms tightened slightly around the pure white dwarf Hotot they held before disappearing.


	3. Chapter 3

After searching the surrounding area around the van, and finding nothing out of the ordinary other than the missing rabbit, the group decided to end the search for the day and try again tomorrow. This decision was made despite Yusuke's loud and rather obnoxious complaints about the loss of his weekend.

Hiei rolled his eyes as he listened to Yusuke's whining. He hadn't had any kind of expectation for them to find Ren today, not that _he_ was actually trying to. The way he saw it as long as he looked like is with the others and did the bare minimum while the rest of the group tried to find Ren, then Koenma can't complain and say that he didn't do anything. Despite not really doing anything particularly helpful and not being invested in this case, Hiei couldn't help but feel irritated by the effect this case had had on his _comrades_ (?). Yusuke was more irritable and slightly angrier than usual, Kuwabara's incessant and quieter complaints (not to mention his voice) was grating Hiei's ears and what's more was Kurama's silence and constant look of concern that seemed to be imprinted on his face.

As Kuwabara walked back to his house, he mumbled and kicked the dirt and stones on the pavement in annoyance at himself and the situation the group have found themselves in. They had no real plan to try and find this convict and he could be anywhere! Aside from his annoyance, Kuwabara could feel some underlying feeling of…he didn't know how to place his feeling. It wasn't the tickle feeling like he got when he felt the presence of ghosts or demons, it was something else. He'd been feeling it since they started looking for this Ren guy and what happened with the van only made it worse, like there was some kind of cold pit in his stomach and his insides were curling round and round. Something about this situation just didn't feel quite right.

Kuwabara rubbed his face (carefully avoiding his perfectly coifed and styled hair) as he tried to sort through his thoughts. From what he understood Ren was a bad guy, he was in prison for 700 years for god's sake and is an escaped convict! Spirit World, like the Police (in Kuwabara's mind) doesn't just go around arresting and locking people up for no good reason! So, why did he feel so damn conflicted? Why did he keep thinking about what Hiei said? Kuwabara groaned, clutching the sides of his head and shouted about how confusing everything was, not taking notice of the civilians around his who were giving, who they thought was a possibly crazy boy, a wide berth.

"Why does everythin' have to be so complicated?!" He groaned and grumbled as he continued walking (stomping). "Even if I don't think about that magic rabbit and that weird stuff with the van, this doesn't even make any sense! We couldn't sense anythin' around there, so why was Kurama freakin' out over it?"

The pounding headache was beginning to feel like a jack hammer was going to town in his head, so Kuwabara decided it was time he forgot about it by going to the arcade for a few hours to play enough games in order to feel some blissful numbness before going home and getting something to eat (or vice versa, depending on how hungry he'd feel after playing all those games) before going to sleep and having pleasant dreams about his sweet Yukina.

~Time skip: The next day~

After Yusuke and Kuwabara had painstakingly pulled themselves out of bed; or more accurately, Kurama and Hiei had forced them out of bed, the four of them continued their search for Ren, all the while trying to think about other possible places that Ren could be hiding. Well, Kurama and Kuwabara were thinking, Hiei didn't care and Yusuke was busy complaining about how the whole situation was "some weirdass version of hide and seek". The others, having become accustomed to Yusuke's complaining happily ignored his sentiments towards this mission.

"I believe it would be best if we asked Genkai if she has sensed a large amount of spirit energy in the last ten years." Kurama spoke as the four of them were sat in a park, with Hiei in a tree in his usual silence while Yusuke and Kuwabara nodded in agreement. "With her spirit awareness being so high, she should be able to locate him or have some knowledge of where to find him. If not we could always ask Hiei to locate him with his Jagan."

Hearing Kurama's last idea, Yusuke and Kuwabara perked up.

"Why the hell didn't we do that in the first place?!" Yusuke shouted, standing up.

"Yeah, it would have solved all our problems." Kuwabara said blinking and looking up at Hiei who stared blankly at them. He had known that he _could_ have used his Jagan to help them. But the fact was that he _chose_ not to because he _didn't want to._

"Now that you mention it, I forgot Hiei had that thing." Yusuke chirped, rubbing the back of his head, earning him a glare from Hiei and a sweat drop from Kurama as Yusuke held up his hands in mock surrender. "Woah, it's not like I meant to but since you cover it up all the time, I just kinda forgot."

Hiei glared even harder at his _friend_ (he was beginning to question why he even put up with Yusuke and Kuwabara's collective idiocy.) trying to make Yusuke spontaneously combust on the spot, reaching for his katana. Yusuke however just brushed off Hiei's death glare and stood, and prompted the others to follow him to Genkai's temple.

~Time skip~

It was now midday and the sun was mercilessly shining down upon the group with sadistic pleasure (that's what Kuwabara and Yusuke thought anyway) as the two of them panted and grunted as they slowly made their way up the seemingly never ending steps to Genkai's temple. The two human boys were sweating through their clothes, groaning and moaning about the stairs, Genkai's decision to live in the mountains and have so many bloody stairs and cursing Hiei who had flitted up the stairs with ease along with Kurama. (The reason why they weren't cursing Kurama was because _he_ didn't shoot them both a smug smile just before he teleported up the stairs.) The two demons were both waiting patiently (well Kurama was waiting patiently, Hiei was shaking his head at how slow the other two were.) for Yusuke and Kuwabara to reach the top.

Somehow, even after his training with Genkai, stairs and any land that was on an upward incline was an enemy that Yusuke couldn't quite best in a timely manner. Kuwabara hadn't had any training but didn't really exercise beyond fighting other teenagers his age. Either way, the two of them had, in Hiei's mind, no excuse to be taking so long to climb the stairs.

When Yusuke and Kuwabara, eventually, made it to the top, they collapsed in a sweaty heap, glowering at Hiei and the hellish and unyielding enemy that was the sun. Hiei scoffed at the two of them for being so slow and wasting his time and walked off, whilst Kurama tried to play peacekeeper. Yusuke and Kuwabara didn't know what more was infuriating the fact that Hiei still looked so smug and superior or the fact that Hiei hadn't even broken a sweat, and he was the one who was wearing all black!

At this point Yusuke was hot, tired and therefore pissed. He just wanted to find Ren, kick his ass (if possible) and then return him to Koenma and spend what little weekend he had left relaxing. (Preferably in his home, on his bed, with the air conditioner on at full blast with ice cream and a cold, refreshing beer.) And Yusuke being Yusuke and ruled by teenage anger and a bit of angst, Yusuke stomped through Genkai's temple compound, checking the multiple dojo rooms, the outside training area and Genkai's personal arcade, shouting and screeching at the top of his voice looking for the old psychic (or as he said it "old prehistoric fossil who doesn't believe in air con!")

Yusuke's anger and Kuwabara's frustration were at new levels of high when Hiei informed them, with a stoic look on his face and voice devoid of any emotion that Genkai was in fact in the temple. But didn't even bother to say anything helpful like where she was in the temple.

The group did eventually, after a few verbal arguments between Yusuke, Kuwabara and Hiei which Kurama was the one to break up each time, find Genkai. However she wasn't alone and it was to their surprise that she was sat comfortable in one of her many living rooms with a steaming cup of tea beside her as she played Mortal Kombat X with Ren of all people.

Kurama was just as surprised and a little incredulous as the others when he saw the two sat next to each other playing video games like it was the most normal thing in the world. Yusuke and Kuwabara were stood speechless and were beginning to wonder if they were hallucinating from having heat stroke or something, making them see Ren wearing a black hoodie and red checkered trousers with a white rabbit on his lap playing video games with Genkai. Yusuke pinched himself, no this isn't some weird dream, and after stepping lightly on the floor, he's not dead either…So what the hell is going on here?!

"Come on... just a little more...!" Ren muttered, his voice was rather high for a boy, not to mention soft and rather quiet but it was deep enough for them to know Ren was a guy. Or at least suspect that his voice hadn't broken yet, or was in the process of breaking.

"Fatality! Finish him!" The speakers of the flat screen boomed as Scorpion attacked, throwing a ball of fire at Sub Zero's chest, leaving a hole with Sub Zero's heart falling in front of the screen as Scorpion sliced Sub Zero's skull in half. "Flawless Victory!"

"Yes!" Ren hissed, throwing his arms in the air while Genkai smirked.

"Cheater, you got lucky."

"Eh?! Not true! We had a deal remember? If you choose Sub Zero, then I get to use Scorpion! It's not my fault _you_ can't beat my ultimate team." Ren said sniffing.

"Hmpf, don't get cocky, you're going to lose at DDR."

"Tch! As if-"

The banter between Genkai and Ren was interrupted by Yusuke's shout of confusion, causing the two to turn around and stare at the four slightly dumbfounded. It took the team a few moments to fully process the sight in front of them.

Genkai, master of the spirit wave, and the world's number one psychic was sat next to Ren the Sacred Spirit who had broken out of Spirit world was sitting cross legged with a small white rabbit on his lap as they played games while making playful banter. Even after taking in the sight for a few more minutes, they couldn't quite believe what they were seeing. Ren was a convict and a criminal, right? So surely Ren would be in some non-descript hide out near high levels of spirit energy, wearing some kind of disguise, right? You know, like normal criminals unlike Ren who was practically out in the open and not even bothering to hide his biggest give away, the bright red lotus blossom mark on his forehead.

"What are you doing here dimwit? What do you want?" Genkai asked still holding the game controller in her small withered hands while Yusuke spluttered for a moment.

"What am I doing here? What's he doing here?!" Yusuke shouted, pointing accusingly at Ren. Ren blinked in confusion at the commotion, putting down the controller and petting the startled rabbit on his lap.

"Um…I live here?"


	4. Chapter 4 Convict?

"Um…I live here?" Ren said, his statement sounding more like a question rather than a definitive answer, as if he were testing the waters, trying to gauge their reaction.

The Reikai Tantei all stared at Ren in surprise before Yusuke and Kuwabara finally registered his words and fully realised that yes this was actually happening.

"WHAT?!" They both shouted in shock.

"No way! You weren't around here when the old hag was teaching me!" Yusuke yelled as he pointed a finger at the still seated boy who was gently petting the rabbit on his lap, comforting the shaking creature. "Besides, Genkai never said anything about you when I was here!"

"Why the hell would I talk about Ren when I'm trying to get you to buck up and train dumbass?!" Genkai said sharply, making Yusuke slowly withdraw his pointing finger of accusation and mumble how she had a point.

"Genkai asked me if I could stay somewhere else for the time being when you were being trained because she didn't want me, or my gaming habits, to distract you from your training." Ren explained. "Although I did stick around for her contest to see which lucky soul would become her prized apprentice, and help install all the arcade games. And remind Genkai not to leave all the contestants in the Dark Forest and that she actually needed to save them."

After he finished speaking, Ren looked down to the table and looked at the egg timer that was slowly ticking away and at the clock on the wall.

"Are any of you hungry by any chance? I've made some lasagna from scratch and it should be done in a minute or so." Ren offered with a small, friendly smile.

The others were rather taken aback with Ren friendly and smiley attitude. In all honesty they were expecting him to act like Hiei or something and threaten to kill them if they tell Koenma his whereabouts. They didn't expect, no they didn't even think of the possibility that Ren would be like this!

"Why?" Kurama asked Ren, his face frowning slightly in confusion, his guard up and ready just in case Ren had some trick up his sleeve. If he had managed to somehow trick Genkai into letting him stay with her, then he was truly a formidable foe.

"Well, it's almost time for lunch, I've cooked enough food for everyone and I'm hungry after seeing all the gore in Mortal Kombat." Ren answered with ease stopping the egg timer when it began to ring shrilly, startling Yusuke and Kuwabara. (In all honesty it startled Hiei as well, but he'd never admit it.)

"Look if you're not hungry or you don't want any, you can just decline." Ren continued a little impatiently, his smile wiped clean off his face as he frowned at Kurama. "It's a simple yes or no question."

Yusuke and Kuwabara's stomachs began to growl in hunger and the two of them immediately accepted Ren's offer. Kurama debated whether he would accept or not before accepting, albeit a little tentatively.

"I don't see why you're walking on egg shells over this." Ren muttered, his soft voice only loud enough for Kurama and Hiei to hear. "You make it seem like it's all a ploy to lull you into a false sense of security, just so I can poison you all to death when you least expect it."

Hearing this, Hiei and Kurama watched Ren with a hard expression as he stood and walked to the kitchen with the little rabbit hopping quickly after him. They were going to think nothing much of Ren's mutters if it wasn't for the small smirk he had just as he left the room. They shared a look and decided that they would watch Ren very carefully. Hiei sat on the windowsill where he had a good view of the entire room and would be able to see almost every move everyone made, whilst Kurama began to regard Ren with a certain trepidation, there was something more to Ren than meets the eye.

"This- this is the guy we're supposed to take back? Man he seems weak, I couldn't even feel his spirit energy." Kuwabara scoffed. Kuwabara thought that all that time he had spent over thinking everything had been wasted! Clearly he had nothing to worry about, he could have spent that time doing other and more important stuff, like sleeping!

A few moments later, Ren returned wearing blue oven mitts and carrying a large dish of lasagna with the small white rabbit hopping along behind him.

"You do know that you can sit down, right? Genkai and I don't expect you to eat standing up." Ren said as they put down the food and handed the plates and eating utensils.

As he cut up and served the lasagna, Ren surveyed the room through the corner of his eye, noticing how cautious and watchful Kurama was being and Hiei's hand that was 'resting' on the hilt of his katana. Ren was more than aware of the silent warning.

Yusuke and Kuwabara found the silence in the room awkward, but at the moment weren't exactly sure what to say. They both periodically opened their mouths but after a split second of thought, closed them again and stared down at the steaming and heavenly smelling food in front of them. Under normal circumstances the two of them would have scarfed down the food as quickly as humanely possible, but right now, Kurama and Hiei were too tense and Kurama hadn't moved a muscle to even touch his food. All he was doing was staring at Ren as if he were waiting for the flower marked boy to eat first.

"What's wrong? Is there something wrong with your food?" Ren asked with a smirk, staring right at Kurama, silently daring him to eat the food that was being offered.

"Not unless you're admitting that there is." Kurama replied, eyes narrowing.

"Come now, you've just watched me serve the food with those eagle eyes of yours. If I really wanted to poison you all or just the three of you, then I'd only have two viable options." Ren said blithely cutting and eating a piece of the Italian dish.

"Poison?! What poison?! What's going on here?!" Kuwabara shouted standing up, almost flipping the table in his haste.

"Nothing…yet." Ren answered slowly, purposely being vague and avoiding the question.

"You better tell us what's going on or we'll kick your ass, tie you up and serve you to Koenma on a plate." Yusuke warned him.

"Oh? So you _are_ Koenma's boys." Ren spoke slowly smirking as he finished his piece of lasagna. "Could it be that you're here to, ah, retrieve me?"

The Reikai Tantei gang's eyes widened in shock. ' _How did he-when did he start suspecting us'?_ Thought Yusuke and Kuwabara. His comment about poisoning us was all a ploy, Kurama thought grim with realization, he's been playing us the entire time.

"Ren, you should know by now your morbid sense of humor doesn't appeal to everyone. It can give people the wrong idea." Genkai said, admonishing him as she drank her tea and finished her food.

"It's not meant to _appeal_ to everyone. That's why it's called a morbid and twisted sense of humor." Ren replied, closing his eyes before opening them and pinning the Reikai Tantei with a hard stare. "Besides, I wouldn't have to resort to such measures if they had the common curtesy to introduce themselves and just tell us what they want. If not it can lead to misunderstandings and it's rude to practically kidnap someone without introducing oneself first and confirming the target."

"It's rude to kidnap someone." Genkai retorted.

"I'd say it's slightly less if you introduce yourself first. At least you're bothering to get to know them."

"I take it that you're speaking from experience? What kind of things do you actually do when you're working?" Genkai asked, narrowing her eyes slightly in confusion.

"Normal things." Ren answered vaguely. "You know what they say, the more you know someone the easier it is to off them."

"Uh, I'm pretty sure that's not what people say." Kuwabara said, finally speaking up through his haze of confusion. He had no idea what the hell was going on anymore.

"And had you simply come clean when you had the chance, this wouldn't have happened, with no misunderstandings and yet, here we are." Ren smirked up and Kuwabara. His hands spread out as he gestured to the scene in front of him.

Hiei had had enough of this, moving quicker than normal human eyes could see, Hiei unsheathed his katana and held it up at Ren's neck. His blade pressed against Ren's neck as he held Ren in place from behind.

"Tell us what you're planning and I _might not_ slit your throat." Hiei threatened the shorter male. Ren's smirk morphed into a smile as he disappeared and reappeared behind Hiei, startling him.

"Who said I was planning anything?" Ren asked him. Hiei's eyes widened as the others stared in shock. Hiei hadn't even felt Ren move out of his grasp, how did he do that? Hiei quickly turned and swung at Ren who simply stepped away from Hiei's blade with ease.

At first Yusuke and Kurama had wondered why Ren was even imprisoned, he didn't look like the type to cause any kind of trouble and he seemed relatively harmless? Now it was clear that Ren had definitely been hiding under a very thick layer of sheep's skin. But how had he managed to pull the wool over Genkai's eyes? Kurama thought for a moment, reviewing what Genkai had said to Ren earlier, he was wrong, Genkai hadn't been fooled, she had known, must have known the entire time about Ren's imprisonment. She didn't even look surprised when Yusuke or Ren had mentioned him needing to be retrieved.

"Tell us then, if you have not planned anything, then what did you mean by having only two viable options to poison us?" Kurama asked Ren, his eyes hardened, ready to, at any slight movement that would imply aggression, to attack.

"As I have said there are only two viable options one would think of _if_ I wanted to kill you with poison." Ren explained with a smile, unnerving Yusuke and Kuwabara with how innocent and out of place it appeared when Ren was talking about poisoning them all. "The first would be of course to poison the lasagna itself. However the drawback of such a plan would be that I would have to poison the entire lasagna, all while ensuring that the poison of choice has no telltale smell or taste. In order to avoid poisoning myself or Genkai, I would, of course put the antidote in the tea we are drinking, or have given the two of us small doses of the poison every day in order to build up an immunity against it." Ren explained.

"And the second?" Kurama asked.

"The second is much easier and has not as many different variables as the first such as the possibility of you not eating the lasagna. It is of course to poison your drinks." Ren answered making Yusuke and Kuwabara look at their empty cups in horror. "Using the possibility of poisoning the food as the distraction and the two of them taking your cue not to eat a single morsel would mean that you wouldn't suspect your tea to be poisoned."

"Of course." Kurama commented grimly.

"However I have not used the two viable methods to poison you, and to do so would be more than foolish. Koenma knows where you are and who you're after. If you all suddenly showed up in Reikai without your bodies, he would know who to suspect." Ren explained, assuring the four of them that he had not been attempting to kill them. Hiei was not convinced, but Kurama couldn't smell that Ren was lying and nodded his head slightly to Hiei, who sheathed his sword and moved back to the windowsill. Yusuke and Kuwabara warily sat down.

"You must be a real delight at dinner parties." Genkai said, looking up at Ren from the rim of her cup. "The food isn't going to bite you! Just eat your damn food! She said loudly, glaring slightly at Yusuke and Kuwabara who had been poking their food, just to be sure. Hearing her scolding voice, Yusuke and Kuwabara mumbled a hasty "yes ma'am" and started eating, savoring the cheesy and meat filled deliciousness that was the food.

"Of course there is the third option where I could have poisoned both your food and drink after lulling you into another false sense of security." Ren commented just as Yusuke and Kuwabara were in mid swallow, making them choke as they tried to spit the food out. "But it would still be foolish and a rather thinly veiled trap."

Eventually the food decided that it wanted to go to their stomachs and Yusuke and Kuwabara both drank large gulps of water to clear up their esophagus.

After tentatively ensuring that Ren did not plan to kill them, the group wondered if it was time to start asking the questions that they had all had when they had first seen Ren sitting in Genkai's living room.

"So, uh, you are Ren the Sacred Spirit, right? The one that broke out of Spirit World jail?" Kuwabara asked cautiously just to clarify that this was indeed the one they were meant to be taking back to Spirit World.

"Yes, and you four are?" Ren asked the four of them.

"Oh, uh" Yusuke replied through a mouthful of food, hastily swallowing before continuing. "I'm Yusuke Urameshi, the number one delinquent of Sarayashiki Junior High. This idiot over here's Kuwabara (Hey! Shut it Urameshi!), this guy over here is Kurama and the one over there is Hiei."

"You already know who I am but in the spirit of things, I am Ren, currently a student of Mitarashi Academy's University. Nice to meet you." Ren replied smiling and wiping their lips with a napkin. Hiei and the rest of the group, sans Genkai, perked up hearing that Ren was a University student.

"Why are you attending University here? Why haven't you returned to spirit world?" Kurama asked, voicing most of the questions the others wanted answering such as, why are you living with Genkai?

"I needed something to occupy my time as well as pursue my hobbies." Ren answered, raising an eyebrow at their surprise at his answer. "What? It's not like there's much else for me to do, besides what did you think I was doing for the past 10 years? Hatching some convoluted scheme with various different plans in place to account for the different variables, all so I could take over Ningenkai and destroy Reikai?"

"Uh, not at first." Yusuke said looking a little weirded out by Ren's answer. "But now that you mention it, and in so much detail, yeah."

"So, what have you been doing here?" Kurama asked Ren as they rolled their eyes at Yusuke's words.

"Better yet, why don't you tell us why you're a human." Hiei demanded, glaring at Ren's amused face. Kurama, Yusuke and Kuwabara looked at Ren, really looked at Ren, and honestly, Yusuke and Kuwabara couldn't tell if he was or not. Kurama's eyes widened slightly as he caught Ren's scent. It was faint, but he could just about smell the slight hint in his scent that spoke of Ren's status as a human.

"You're powers of perception are impressive."

"Are you mocking me?" Hiei hissed ready to slit Ren's throat (or attempt to).

"No, I'm just pointing out that you're the only one out of your team to notice. Honestly, I thought Kurama was going to be the one who brought it up. But apparently not."

"If you're really the Ren we're after, you would do well to tell us why you're not an apparition." Hiei said threateningly.

"I have two reasons: recovery and survival." Ren answered. "In order for Reikai to ensure that I remain weak enough for them to detain me, they had to use some very specific talismans and chains. In order to properly ensure that I couldn't do anything suspicious I wasn't allowed to move, drink or eat. The talismans and wards inside and outside my cell kept me alive, but the lack of food kept me weak. The chains sucked away the majority of my Ki and kept me in place. Over the centuries I was able to slowly destroy the talismans in my cell, leaving the weaker ones that were left on my body. The chains didn't suck away all of my Ki, so I was able to concentrate and store what little Ki I could spare within me. Over time it became enough for me to use for my escape. However the fact is the conditions Reikai had me under was also keeping me alive, once I escaped, I began to die of thirst and starvation. The wards had only been preventing my body from feeling the effects of hunger and thirst. In a last ditch effort for survival I was able to transform my body into that of a human child. While equally weak, it required less spirit energy for me to survive. I then wandered around for a few months until Genkai found me on her battleground and invited me to stay until I recovered."

"So you're stuck as a human until you can become a Sacred Spirit again?" Kuwabara asked, scratching the back of his head.

"Yes, it shouldn't be too long now, maybe a few years or so." Ren nodded in confirmation. "Now I assume you have a mission to fulfill? Bringing me back and stopping Koenma from wetting himself at the thought of possible failure?"

"Uh, yeah." Kuwabara mumbled as Ren stood up, stacking the plates, keeping Kurama's untouched piece of lasagna separate from the dirty dishes. Ren then placed the plates in the kitchen to be washed later and picked up his pet rabbit.

"Well? Aren't we going to Reikai?" He asked with a slight raised brow.

"Yes, of course." Kurama replied, as he opened a portal between the two worlds. On the whole retrieving Ren had been easy, a little too easy, and Kurama couldn't help but feel suspicion towards the rabbit holding male and from the looks on Yusuke and Kuwabara's faces they were suspicious too.

Hiei too felt suspicious, Ren clearly hadn't been hiding, and from the way Ren had been acting, it was as though he had been waiting for them, like he had already known what was going to happen.

"You're really just going to let us take you back, no fuss or muss?" Yusuke asked Ren, as if to make sure that Ren knew what he was doing.

"Would you prefer for me to struggle? Struggling would just lead to unnecessary conflict and be a complete waste of your and my time and energy. Besides if I struggle, that would imply that I am guilty of something, no?" Ren asked Yusuke who nodded. "Of course it could also imply that I am actually innocent and refuse to go because of that fact, but most would immediately think guilty. So lead the way, I'm sure Koenma is just dying to see us."


	5. Chapter 5 Tickling Interest

Upon hearing of the Spirit Detective's arrival with Ren in tow, Koenma immediately straitened up his desk and sat up straight his small hand leisurely placed on the arms of his chair. Breathing deeply, Koenma adopted a cool mask of indifference, and shifted his body slightly in order to exude authority and nonchalance as the group entered his office with Botan leading the way.

Swallowing some saliva, Koenma quietly cleared his throat and began to congratulate Yusuke and co. on their successful retrieval mission.

"Honestly you found Ren quicker than I anticipated, so you should be proud of your achievement." Koenma admitted.

"We would have been faster if you actually told us more about this guy and where he was." Yusuke muttered grouchily, which Koenma deftly ignored and looked steadily at Ren.

"Now Ren, despite your status as an escaped convict, Reikai has reviewed your file (not that there was much there to begin with) and have decided to ignore your previous conviction." Koenma explained to the mismatch eyed boy.

"What?!" Hiei hissed, glaring at Koenma as Yusuke and Kuwabara's jaws dropped open in surprise.

"Oh?" Ren hummed in amusement.

"Yes. In fact we, Reikai, would like to request that you join as the fifth member of the Spirit Detective Team." Koenma finished, sitting back slightly and smiling, what he hoped was a winning smile.

"…Are you really inviting me to join the 'sausage fest' that is _your_ and Reikai's cleanup crew?" Ren asked, scoffing slightly. "Isn't that just your, or more accurately Enma's, way of trying to put me under his thumb?"

"Hey!" Yusuke shouted along with Kuwabara, taking offence to the way Ren described his job and his description of him and his friends. Even he had to admit that, even with Botan around, it was mostly just the four of them, but that doesn't make it a sausage fest!

Koenma was silent, his eyes side as he tried to think of a way to explain his father's decision.

"After all, aren't you meant to be recounting my crimes, explaining the reason for my imprisonment?" Ren continued with a mocking smirk. "Why don't you just go ahead and follow protocol? It's been so long, I don't think I quite remember what I did to deserve 7 centuries and what would have been an indefinite jail time."

Koenma looked away and down at his desk, unable to look Ren in the eye. Koenma kept swallowing as he tried to moisten his mouth, trying to block the feeling of his Detective group's, as well as Botan and Jorge's stares. They were waiting for him to speak, to explain exactly _what_ Ren did to deserve such a punishment. Surely _if_ it was _that_ bad, wouldn't he have been executed?

"Oh?" Ren's smirk slowly morphed into a smile. "Do you really have no idea? Even though you _are_ the chief administrator for Reikai, 'Daddy Dearest' hasn't told you _anything_ despite making you have people look for me? I would have thought Enma would have gone into great detail about _all_ the prisoners of Reikai, especially the ones that are no longer allowed to see the light of day."

It appeared that Ren was enjoying the sight of Koenma's discomfort and Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama weren't sure what to make of it. Yes, they enjoyed teasing the toddler prince every now and again, but the way Ren was doing it, it seemed much harsher. It wasn't in an obvious sort of harshness, but more passive aggressive, like Ren was taunting Koenma.

"Tut tut, bad form Enma, bad form." Ren tutted, closing his eyes and opening them slowly. "Did he even give you my file? The one that he hasn't been smeared by blank ink?"

Kurama and Koenma both frowned at Ren's words. Blank ink? His files had been edited and by King Enma? What would Spirit World gain from editing an apparition's, no a criminal's file? Nothing. So why would King Enma go to all that trouble? It didn't make any sense.

"Ah, by that look on your face, I'd say that he hasn't, and you didn't even know about it. If you did, you'd want to have me thrown back in jail, not that it'll help. No, you'd have told your cleanup crew to slit my throat when they had the chance." Ren said with a smile, gently petting the white rabbit in his arms. "After all, doing that would look great for Spirit World wouldn't it, great for you? You'd finally surpass your father…getting rid of the cause for Enma's last great, and failed conquest against Makai." Ren said the last sentence slowly, indulgently, with a dark smile.

Hearing this, Hiei finally remembered the cause of that niggling feeling and looked at Ren in a whole new light.

"So you're _that_ Ren." Hiei stated, regarding Ren with a look of respect that was reserved, so far for only two people, Yusuke and Kurama. To his knowledge, there were few in Makai that was thought of and deserving of being considered 'Legendary', Youko Kurama being one and the warrior Ren was the other.

"Huh? What'cha talking about?" Yusuke asked turning his head to look at Hiei in interest. He hadn't seen Hiei look at anyone in such a way, with a certain respect and expectancy.

"In Makai there is a…myth about a warrior called Ren." Kurama explained, his green eyes locked on Ren a little disbelievingly. "Even in my time Ren was already a partial myth. Ren, the warrior with a red lotus flower. Most didn't believe he existed in the first place, but those who did always thought of him in fear and awe at the stories of his ruthless killings. Perhaps the most well-known is of Ren's 'disappearance'. According to the tale, centuries ago, Ren, alone, met and fought King Enma's forces, mercilessly butchering those who stood in his way. After the battle, he disappeared without a trace."

"I thought you were dead." Hiei spoke, and within his usual monotone, there was a hint of excitement. He had always wanted to find Ren, to meet him ever since he had first heard his bandit family speak of Ren in hushed tones around a campfire, their eyes constantly darting to look around them as if fearing that Ren would leap out from the shadows to slaughter them. Hiei lost count of the times his 'family' had warned him from killing animals in what they dubbed as Ren's forest, and what the rest of Makai knew as the Forest of Fools, because only a fool would kill the animals that Ren protected. Hiei's childhood was filled with (other than killing) hours upon hours of him walked through the forest, hoping to catch a glimpse of the powerful warrior, wanting to grow up and be as strong as him.

Hearing this Kurama and Yusuke both gasped in shock, Yusuke's mind racing in fear as Hiei had, unknowingly sent telepathic images of the mutilated corpses of demons, humans and spirits alike. His instincts were telling him to get as far away from Ren as possible, whereas another part of Yusuke wanted to meet Ren in battle, just to see how much power could be in someone so small.

Kurama was full of disbelief and trepidation for in Makai, Ren was assumed to be dead, then again so was he, but while his escapades of youth were a legend in itself; the stories of Ren's ruthless killings were something else entirely. Some people even speculated that Ren was just that, a story, an urban legend used to scare misbehaving kits and inspire young warriors.

Kuwabara exclaimed loudly, leaping away from Ren, visibly shaking in fear at the smaller male whose gaze slid from Koenma to the group assessing each member lazily before returning to Koenma.

"Yes, well people think he's dead, and yet here he stands." Ren responded inkling his head towards Kurama.

Koenma had to swallow his surprise and growing fear as he fully understood just _who_ he was dealing with. If Ren was the Ren of legend, then Yusuke and the others may well be out of their depth, and his father's plans of using the Detective team to 'keep Ren in check' would be a failure. Even worse, with the look of respect from Hiei, having Ren on the team could very well make his attitude _worse_ , making Kurama and the others' influence on the fire demon worthless. Rubbing his face Koenma couldn't help but wonder just what the hell his father was thinking?!

"Regardless of this new…information, and your previous imprisonment, the offer to be a member of the team still stands." Koenma said after swallowing his fear and steeling himself.

"If you mean the, technically, false imprisonment I'm not surprised you want to gloss over that fact as quickly as possible." Ren commented, stroking the rabbit's ears.

Koenma cleared his throat and coughed into his hand (dummy).

"Ah, yes. Well regardless, Reikai is in need of and would very much appreciate your strength which would help to handle our case load." Koenma explained.

"My strength? From what I've heard, Reikai doesn't need my strength. Isn't that what your ragtag band of merry heroes are for? I'm sure they are more than strong enough to deal with all the 'bad guys' that keep you up at night." Ren scoffed, waving away Koenma's excuse as the rabbit in Ren's arm nuzzled its rounded head into the crook of his arm. "Thanks for the offer, but I'd rather not."

Koenma's mind began to race as he tried to think of a way to persuade or appease Ren, something he remembered his father saying that he had failed to do in the past. King Enma had told him that Ren was too much of a wild card to try to bargain with, too hard to read, knowing what Ren wanted out of something or what exactly would tempt him was near impossible; but Koenma had to try something.

"W-wait! I would like to apologise on the behalf of Spirit World and my father for your false imprisonment. Unfortunately other than this apology, there is nothing else Reikai can offer as a consolation." Koenma said desperately, bowing his head. Ren's eyebrows rose in slight surprise. The prince is clearly more mature than the King in this aspect, thought the Sacred Spirit turned human.

Ren considered everything that Koenma had said and pushed his tongue to the roof of his mouth in thought. Sighing soundlessly Ren spoke after a few minutes of tense silence.

"I accept _your_ apology Prince Koenma and while I hate the thought of being _Enma's_ lackey and working for him, regardless of what he wants or says, I must admit your boys have somewhat tickled my interest." Ren said, his voice soft and quiet but rather than the taunting tone that he used before, it was more courteous, rather like the way he spoke to the group before he spoke of poisoning them. Ren cocked his head to the side as he played with the rabbit's ears and Koenma looked up at Ren in surprise and hope. Ren's eyes slid over the group once more. "I am…willing to work _with_ you."

"However," Ren continued, dashing Koenma's hope slightly. "I will only work with you and your boys under certain…conditions."

"Of course." Koenma replied, looking a lot more relaxed and suppressing a sigh of relief. "Depending on what your conditions are, they can be negotiated, arranged and put in place."

"I only have two conditions which I work under and they are reasonable, so there is no need for negotiations." Ren reassured Koenma. "The first condition is that I must be paid for my work. As this is an invitation to work with Reikai and I'm not being forced like 75% of your team, payment is to be expected, no?"

"Of course." Koenma nodded, this condition, as Ren had said, _was_ reasonable since this was an actual job offer and unlike Yusuke, Kurama and Hiei, if Ren were to accept the offer, he still wouldn't be obligated to take every case given to him.

"The second condition is that I get to choose what cases I pursue. I'd prefer knowing what I'm getting into and not being forced to work at ungodly hours like your team." Ren said closing his eyes and jerking his head in Yusuke's direction, who grudgingly wished that _he_ had thought to negotiate the terms of his job with Koenma rather than just go with it. "If I deem the case not worth my time, then I won't do it…unless the world is about to explode or something, then feel free to try impose an obligation on my part to work."

Koenma closed his eyes in thought, steepling his hands by his face, his elbows on his desk. Really, these conditions were very similar, if not the same as that of a normal detective, and it's not like they were outrageous in any way. Nodding at his decision Koenma eventually, agreed to the proposed conditions.

"Excellent." Ren said, practically purring as he smiled at the now reworked conditions for work. "It's a pleasure doing business with you Prince Koenma."

After saying this, Ren turned to leave, cradling the rabbit close to his chest as he walked to the door.

"Wait, where are you going?" Botan asked loudly. She had half a mind to walk after him and try to drag him back over to the others. Ren looked over his shoulder at Botan.

"We're done here, aren't we? You only brought me here to discuss this did you not?" Ren asked her before continuing. "Besides, I have other, more pressing matters that require my attention, such as coursework, exam preparation, extracurricular activities and the like. Plus it's around the time for me to feed Miffy-Chan."

After the automatic doors closed, signaling that Ren had left and was on his way back to Genkai's, Jorge, Koenma's ever present blue Ogre decided to speak up.

"Why did you let him do all of that, Koenma sir?!" He exclaimed loudly. "Surely it's not a good idea to just give him what he wants and let him do as he pleases! That's just going to give him the idea that he can just keep doing that whenever he wants!"

In response, Koenma simply closed his eyes and wiped the sweat that had accumulated on his brow before speaking. "Then what do _you_ propose we do Ogre?" Koenma asked pointedly. "Attack him? Send him back to jail? Try to have him executed? Such methods are useless and we no longer have the luxury of such choices."

"Okay Koenma start talking, I have a feeling you're not telling us everything." Yusuke began, his fists clenched as he tried to make sense of what just happened in front of him.

"Yes, I too would like to know. Since the mission debriefing everything has been unusually vague and now it is clear that you have been hiding something from us." Kurama agreed as he turned his green gaze upon the boy prince.

Koenma, in turn looked down at his desk and fidgeted under the collective gaze of the Reikai Tantei. After swallowing and a few deep breaths to calm himself Koenma, finally, brought up the courage to look at Reikai Tantei gauging each of their expressions. Yusuke and Kuwabara both appeared to be angry, no furious which also meant they were, to an extent, afraid (of Ren, balance of probability was that they were afraid of Ren, but they would never openly admit it.) Kurama's expression was, as always unreadable and Hiei was…well Hiei.

Koenma knew that he couldn't hide any information about this case from his team, because if he did they may no longer trust him and work for him, Yusuke and Hiei would be even more difficult to handle and knowing Hiei and quite possibly Kurama, they would break into Reikai's records just to see if they could find more information. Sighing at the outcome of the meeting (mostly caused by Ren) Koenma resigned himself to the knowledge that he would have to tell his team everything and prepared himself for the possible onslaught of questions and shouted accusations from different people (most likely Botan, Yusuke and Kuwabara).

"When my father first handed me this case, I too felt that something was amiss, there was barely any information for Reikai to use against Ren." Koenma began to explain. "Eventually I took it upon myself to go to records and see if there was anything else I could find about Ren that could aid in his capture. There I found another file under the same name, and it was almost the same as the one my father gave me."

"Almost? Koenma sir?" Jorge asked in a little confusion.

"Yes ogre, in fact one could say that it was exactly the same, however there was one main difference between the two. The second file, as it turns out was confidential, meant for my father's eyes only and included some details of the…skirmishes Ren has had with Spirit World. And for some reason unknown to me and not written within the file Ren was never apprehended or convicted for his crimes until 7 centuries ago."

"But that's impossible!" Jorge spluttered. "Such exceptions are unheard of, especially from King Enma!"

"That is what I thought so too, until I asked my father." Koenma spoke, closing his eyes and crossing his short arms across his chest.

"And what did he say?" Yusuke asked with a serious frown on his face.

"My father said that the reason for this new mission, the why it has taken Reikai so long to even think of wanting to apprehend Ren is because my father thinks that Ren has yet to be _"tamed"_.

"Tamed?" What's that supposed to mean? Like some kind of wild dog or somethin'?" Kuwabara asked in confusion, he'd never really heard of a person being 'tamed' of all things. The way Koenma said it made Ren seem like some kind of wild animal.

"That's exactly what my father means." Koenma replied, sighing through his nose. "According to my father, any attempt to convict Ren of whatever crime he may commit will mean nothing because the fact is Ren has…well he might have a concept of right and wrong, as twisted as it may be, but Ren doesn't consider Reikai as an authority figure as he has never had one. Ren has never had to live by any rule other than his own."

"Like that of an unruly child." Kurama observed gently holding his chin in thought.

"If he was just childish then dealing with him, educating him would be much easier." Koenma sighed, slumping down in his seat. "In all honesty, even my father has had trouble thinking of a solution of how properly deal with a person like Ren. Based on his crimes, execution of some kind would suffice, but that would mean the loss of Ren's power, and such a loss would mean a loss of potential power that could be used to help Spirit World."

"Such a loss would strategically devastating should a crisis occur." Kurama noted.

"Exactamundo." Koenma nodded. "However once Ren escaped apprehending Ren is an ordeal in itself, let alone trying to locate him. He's too experienced, even in his weakened state, for our normal operatives to try to retrieve him."

"Okay, so how did we come into the picture?" Yusuke asked scratching his head.

"After reviewing the success of your previous cases, my father deemed the four of you to be more than capable of taking on someone such as Ren." Koenma answered with ease, a hint of pride in his voice.

"WHAT?!" Botan screamed, stomping over and slamming her hands on Koenma's desk. Botan leaned close to Koenma and started screeching like a banshee. "Even with Kurama and Hiei's help, how could you send them after someone like Ren?! He could have killed them without even batting an eye!"

Botan was more than furious by what she thought was such an irresponsible decision, even if it was ordered by King Enma. Botan grabbed the front of Koenma's shirt and began to shake the 700 year old baby as if to try to shake some sense into her boss.

"Stop." Kurama commanded softly, walking over to Botan and placing a placating hand on her shoulder. "I'm sure Koenma has a good reason for all of this and will answer _all_ of our questions in due time. He cannot do that if you kill him (and if you keep shaking him like that, you might just do that).

Taking a deep breath, Botan let the prince go and took a step back, holding the inside of her pink kimono sleeve in a white knuckled grip as she held in her need to throttle her superior.

"Thank you Kurama. Now to answer your question Botan I had thought of the possibility of Ren killing Yusuke. In fact my father warned me of the possibility of this being the last case any of you would be sent on." Koenma answered, pulling and readjusting her shirt collar.

"And you sent us anyway?!" Yusuke shouted, enraged by Koenma's admission. "What the hell is wrong with you?!"

"I can assure you that nothing is wrong with me Yusuke and if you would calm down and let me finish I'll tell you _why_ I decided to send you." Koenma said loudly, irritation colouring his tone. He understood their anger, he really did, but they didn't even think to consider the amount of stress this one case had put on him. "The fact that Ren could kill you all on the spot had crossed my mind many times, which is why I first sent some agents for Reikai to find Ren and try to monitor him. I decided the best course of action based on _his_ actions."

 _A wise decision on his part_ , thought Kurama.

"After watching Ren's actions and decisions (what little we could actually keep track of), I previously sent different teams to apprehend Ren and have him brought back to Reikai." Koenma continued. "However the previous teams, once they found Ren, immediately tried attacking him purely on the basis that he is an escaped convict. This all resulted in multiple teams being booted through portals beaten to an inch of their lives. The last team I had dispatched were returned with a warning: "Send another group like that and they'll be returning in body bags. I'm tired of dealing with your weak lackeys. Leave me alone". After the last group was returned to us requiring intensive and immediate medical help, I decided to continue to try to monitor his movements and actions. But Ren's exceptionally and annoyingly talented at being hidden from our sight, the most we have of him is his…job, if you can call what he does an actual job, and his interactions with humans. I concluded that the best course of action would be to send the four of you to find him and bring him back without the four of you using force."

"There is no way you could have guaranteed that Koenma!" Botan blurted out, blushing slightly in embarrassment at how loud her outburst was and at the rather comical looks of offence on Yusuke and Kuwabara's faces. Botan poked her two index fingers together and looked at the floor as she continued, stammering a little. "I-I mean based on Yusuke's track record, he's not, I mean no offense but, he's not the most gentle-passive- he's more of a physical being."

Botan sweat dropped as she spoke, trying to find the right way to describe her trigger happy friend. She would have and was going to go on and say the same for Hiei, but Hiei's stony expression tinged with his near constant aura of bloodlust made her words die very quickly in her throat.

Yusuke, despite looking a little offended nodded in agreement, along with the other members of the room.

"You make a very good point Botan that was why I had to ensure that Kurama went on the mission as well. I know that had Yusuke been on his own, then he would have shot first and tried to ask questions later, which would have probably ended with his inevitable death." Koenma explained, nodding along with his words. "And also why I didn't put that much emphasis on Ren's criminal past (I had no idea at the time, but it was actually rather helpful in this case)."

"Still, the whole plan still seems like it was rather reckless Koenma sir." Jorge said thoughtfully. "Even if they approached Ren with peace in mind, there was no guarantee that he wouldn't just decide to go on a human, apparition murder spree."

Koenma frowned and spoke reluctantly. "I had hoped, that if worst came to worst, Kurama and Hiei would be enough to…fend of Ren's attacks (or at least hold out until they thought of a way to escape.)"

"I don't think that that would be possible." Kurama admitted, much to the surprise of Yusuke and Kuwabara. "Based on the stories and myth surrounding Ren, I doubt Hiei and I would be enough to repel a force like Ren. At least not while I am in this form."

Hiei scoffed loudly at Koenma's naïveté, rolling his eyes. Against normal opponents he, Kurama and Yusuke were more than enough. But against Ren, who was both feared and revered much like Youko Kurama? They had no chance. Ren, like Kurama was both ruthless and cunning, but even Hiei had to admit that Koenma had been clever enough to see that having Ren as an ally was far better than having Ren as an enemy.

"Even, so Ren had plenty of chances to attack all of you and never even got close enough to hurt any of you." Koenma said as an excuse (as weak as it was). "That shows a lot about his character, don't you think?"

"Hold up a second! Watching us?! What the hell do you mean he was watching us?!" Kuwabara shouted at Koenma. All of this talk about Ren, killing them and Hiei's weirdo glee at knowing who Ren was and all the tense atmosphere was getting to him. He needed Koenma to just give him some answers and then let him outside where he could breathe and think.

"Ren has been following the four of you since I sent you out to go and find him." Koenma said slowly, watching Yusuke carefully, worried that Kuwabara might have an aneurism or pass out from holding his breath for so long.

"He's been following us?!" Yusuke screeched, feeling violated. Who knows what Ren had been doing or had seen while he'd been following them?!

"He's not-its not- Get your mind out of the gutter! He wasn't doing anything like _that!"_ Koenma shouted, knowing just _where_ Yusuke's imagination had taken him. "Just shut up for a minute and watch."

Koenma ordered them as he brought up footage of the end of their…Ren hunt. The video on the large screen the team walking down the street, they heard Yusuke's outburst of frustration as they turned the corner, followed by speeding down the street before suddenly breaking harshly.

""Er…what are we looking for? I don't see anything different from yesterday." Kuwabara said, confused as to why they were watching the accident from yesterday from another angle.

"Yeah, and is that really what my voice sounds like?" Yusuke asked, recoiling slightly from hearing his own voice.

"Watch" Koenma commanded as he rewinded the video and slowed it down. The team watched as the van slowed down as a white rabbit sat on the road, completely unaffected by the oncoming vehicle. Just as the van was to hit the tiny creature, they saw Ren flit quickly in front of the van, pick up the rabbit, checking it over for any injuries before looking at the oncoming van, turning and jumping back the way he came.

"What the hell?" Yusuke spoke in confusion and shock. The only one he'd ever seen move that quickly was Hiei and this Ren, guy whoever he was not only matched Hiei's speed but could possibly beat it. _Who_ _the hell was this guy?_ Yusuke turned his head, looking to the rest of the team for answers but Kurama, Hiei and Kuwabara were all in equal shock, well Kuwabara looked like he was but Hiei only showed signs of shock with the slight widening of his eyes, while Kurama was simply frowning at the T.V screen in front of him.

Kuwabara was more than shocked and confused, at this point his whole body was filled with dread and fear, he _should_ have sensed Ren's presence. He should have felt that uncomfortable tingling feeling at the back of his neck, the slight shiver of awareness that he'd come to rely on. Genkai had said that his spirit awareness was exceptional, so why did it fail him now? All these thoughts swirled around and round in Kuwabara's mind, leaving behind a trail of anxiety and self-doubt.

Kurama was tense. He hadn't smelt Ren on the street, hadn't even felt any of his spirit energy, in fact he had barely felt a thing from Ren since meeting him. His spirit energy was like a small blip on a radar, tiny, insignificant and almost undetected but there. He was wary of what a creature like Ren, who according to legend, was born and bred in battle, a seasoned warrior could do to them, especially since he was no longer Youko Kurama, he was Shuichi Minamino. 

Koenma let the footage sink in for a few moment, and took the time to drink some tea for his parched throat. All the explaining he's had to do was making his voice a little hoarse.

"It had been my mistake before to just send people to try to force Ren's compliance. That's why I had to be more careful." Koenma explained, his voice almost pleading with them to understand. "It's why I had to-"

"You had to lie to us?" Hiei interrupted Koenma with his usual deadpan expression. Making Koenma wince.

"Well…no, it's not really…I just didn't tell you everything." Koenma said weakly, shrinking slightly under the weight of Hiei and Kurama's disapproving gaze (as well as everyone else in the room).

"Lying through omission." Hiei said coldly, glaring at Koenma's shrinking form. Yes this mission had led to meeting _the_ Ren, but Koenma had lied to them whilst telling them to trust him. Hypocritical prince, Hiei's mind hissed.

"I had to! I didn't know everything at first either!" Koenma said defensively.

Hiei scoffed again and was ready to retort, until Botan made a noise of surprise, looking as though she had had a revelation of some kind. Her relatively small outburst interrupted the argument that was about to break out between the usually reticent Hiei and the tantrum throwing, child prince, Koenma.


	6. Chapter 6 Ren's Job

Chapter 6

Hiei scoffed again and was ready to retort, until Botan made a noise of surprise, looking as though she had had a revelation of some kind. Her relatively small outburst interrupted the argument that was about to break out between the usually reticent Hiei and the tantrum throwing, child prince, Koenma.

"Koenma sir, why didn't we use the seal tattoo to track him?" Botan asked, her previous anger with Koenma seemingly forgotten.

"Seal tattoo? What's that?" Kuwabara and Yusuke asked, frowning in confusion.

"A sealing tattoo is what we use to track our convicted criminals should they escape." Botan explained rather cheerily. "Since Ren sounds like he was a high priority case, Ren should have been easily tracked by Reikai using his tattoo, right?"

"So, you always knew where he was, and you didn't tell us?!" Yusuke accused Koenma. "Jeez, you could have told us that, tracked him down and saved us our time lookin' for the guy!"

Koenma was tempted to massage his temples in order to try to ease the headache that was forming from his 'discussion' with his Spirit Detective and his team.

"Yes, we _could_ have tracked Ren through the seal and would have made all our lives easier, _had_ Ren kept the seal on his body."

"What?!" Botan shrieked. "B-But only the one who applied it can remove it! He couldn't have removed it! That's impossible!"

"Yes, well the fact is he did, and we don't know how he managed to do it." Koenma replied tersely. "It wasn't like he decided to explain how he did it midway through his escape."

Hearing this, silence fell over everyone as the full concept of just _who_ they were dealing with, and what they were capable of began to sink in. A sombre mood seemed to envelop everyone as they allowed themselves to just think about the situation. For most of the group they were wondering: well what now? They had done as asked, and yet couldn't help but feel as though Koenma wanted more from them, Reikai wanted more from them.

After a few minutes of stewing in their thoughts, Kurama was pulled out of his self-depreciating thoughts, by remembering a question he had wanted to ask Koenma before Botan sort of took them off topic.

"Koenma, what did you mean by Ren 'working'?" Kurama asked the toddler prince.

"Yeah," Yusuke chimed in. "The way you said it, you don't mean working in a pet shop or something."

Koenma opened his mouth and thought for a moment, wondering what the best way to describe Ren's choice of occupation was.

"Well, what kind of work do you imagine Hiei doing?" Koenma said rather slowly, trying his hardest not to make eye contact or even look in Hiei's direction, fearing that if he did, Hiei might succeed in setting him on fire.

Just as Koenma had posed this question, which made everyone really think about what Hiei did in his free time, and just what kind of level of criminal they imagined him to be, another ogre burst into the room. The ogre was out of breath and panting heavily, trying to shout but failing (it sounded like he was shouting but after a few words he was panting loudly and it really killed the tone of urgency in his voice and thus killed the mood.)

"Koenma sir! (huff huff) We've located Ren, he's (huff huff) we think he's working (huff huff)!" The ogre huffed walking over to Koenma's TV, and upon the boy prince's command changed the channel until he found the right one and left, leaving Koenma to beckon the Reikai Tantei to watch and get a better idea of the kind of person they were contending with.

(With Ren)  
Ren walked up the drive of a very expensive and well-built European styled mansion and whistled lowly, wondering for a moment just how much money it had taken to build it. After thinking for a moment he simply shook his head huffing a small laugh before walking up the steps and opened the front door.

"You'd think with all that money, they'd be smart enough to lock their door." Ren tutted to himself. Looking around the room Ren clucked his tongue in disappointment. "And no guards either. They are either very confident or very stupid."

Sighing softly, Ren turned to the left and opened an ornate mahogany door to reveal a large and well-furnished empty room. Tilting his head slightly, Ren continued through the room and into the next, only to find it empty. Ren continued in this manner only to find (as far as he could tell) all of the rooms on the lower floors to be empty, except for one. Ren stood on the balls of his feet, both hands on the cold metal handle of the dining room and quickly pushed them open and jumped to the side, dodging the barrage of bullets that assaulted the doorway.

"I should be able to dodge all of those. I need the exercise and as long as no one hits me, I should be fine." Ren mumbled to himself as he patted his torso before crouching, his muscles tensed and ready. Gathering his spirit energy, Ren created a number of senbon and leaped into the dining room, twisting to avoid the bullets being fired at him and using his blinding speed threw the senbon at the hired muscle dressed in black suits (they are always dressed in black suits, never any other colours like red or blue or pink or anything colourful, maybe they're afraid it'll undermine their "tough" and "intimidating" image if they do.) standing on the long dinner table. Ren landed before twisting and doing a series of flips, threw some more senbon at the men firing at him on the balcony that was overlooking the dining room, grabbed onto the diamond chandelier and used it to gather some more momentum before swinging over to the other side of the room and landing. Ren exhaled and turned around to assess the damage and found the floor, furniture, walls and windows to be riddled with bullets and the men to have a single senbon lodged in their Adam apples, blood beginning to pooling around them.

Walking over to one of the bodies Ren bent down and picked up one of their handguns and began examining it, stroking the tips of his gloved fingers along the barrel of the gun in appreciation.

"Guns really have improved over the years. If I'd been shot, this body probably wouldn't have been able to take it." Ren mused before placing the gun back with the body. Standing up Ren walked another set of doors, opening them to reveal a brightly lit wide hallway. Standing by another set of doors were two human men, their knuckles white as they tightly clutched their pistols.

Instead of using his spirit energy and hiding or attacking them, or doing anything other than walking towards the men with his hands tucked in the front pocket/pouch of his hoodie. Seeing the young boy walk towards them, they seemed to hesitate before steeling themselves and raised their guns, hands slick with sweat as their index fingers trembled slightly over the trigger. Looking at each other from the corner of their eyes, they both nodded their heads lightly before looking straight at Ren and firing only to find that Ren had disappeared. Suddenly Ren appeared in front of the man to the left of the door, grabbed the barrel of his pistol and twisted it out of his hands before spinning the man and using him as a human meat shield before shooting the other startled and surprised suit clad man right between his eyes just as they were going to shoot at Ren. Dropping the pistol he was holding and darting forward, Ren grabbed the barrel of the gun, yanking it forward and breaking it off and used it to stab the man they were holding in the temple. Stepping back Ren dropped the corpse and looked down to check to see if he had any bloodstains on his black hoodie before using his feet to push the body out of his way before grabbing the ornate door handles and pulling to door open.

(With Koenma)

"How could he just do that?!" Kuwabara shouted, his eyes wide with shock as his fists were clenched in anger. Kuwabara's outburst startled the rest of the group as they stared at him for a moment watching his chest heave. "He could've - he could've just jumped past them all, dodged em, he didn't have to kill them!"

Koenma and Botan shared a look of understanding and pity for Kuwabara and his noble and compassionate nature, even Yusuke and Kurama looked towards Botan and Koenma with the same look, and Yusuke too was filled with partial outrage at Ren's apathetic actions towards the men that had stood in his way. At the same time he was filled with a feeling of shock and awe at Ren's efficiency and how he was able to take them all down with such ease, Yusuke also wondered, as a passing thought, in a fight who would win? Ren or Hiei or Kurama. Now that was a fight he wanted to see.

Kurama understood why Kuwabara was reacting this way because Kuwabara, despite enjoying fighting was in a way a pacifist, and possibly, subconsciously anyway, preferred to avoid a conflict as much as possible and valued the lives of others. Seeing Ren committing such an act without even batting an eyelid was going to make working with Ren (for Kuwabara at least) very difficult. However there was a part of Kurama, (quite a prominent part of him) that really appreciated the way Ren worked, he seemed to be a mixture of efficiency and playfulness that was mostly seen in fox demons, such as himself, and some female demons. That very same part of Kurama knew, just knew, that when it came to stealing something back in his days as the King of Thieves, he had acted and done the very same as Ren: killing and getting rid of anyone and everyone who stood in his way.

Hiei was now smirking in open appreciation of Ren's actions (something that didn't go unnoticed by Kurama). Ren was now beginning to live up to the whispers the bandits in Makai told of him, his ruthlessness, efficiency and apathy and more importantly the sheer joy Ren was said to have on his face as he revelled in the bloodshed. Maybe Ren would live up to his reputation.

Kuwabara however had not finished with his rant and was being tuned out (not that he noticed) by everyone else in their musings. "- could have done something else, knock them out, I dunno he shouldn't have killed them! They could've been innocent and he killed them just like that! What kind of monster does that?!"

Kurama finished his loud rant panting heavily from the exertion of his impassioned "speech". However at those last words he received a side long glance from Kurama and Hiei, with Hiei looking unimpressed and bored at Kuwabara's ranting and raving and Kurama having a slight sheepish smile. Looking at both demons Kuwabara instantly stopped huffing as he realised and remembered just who he was talking to.

"What the hell is that?!" Yusuke shouted, pointing at the TV screen.

(With Ren)

The heavy doors opened silently to reveal a large room containing a 12ft tall demon with dark red skin pulled taut over its bulging muscular body that was only covered in a loincloth made of dead animal skin. He was rather ugly with a large gaping mouth and a wide, fat bulbous nose, and a wild mane of grey hair, the giant demon looked like a living depiction of demons in Japanese legends and artwork. Its bulging black eyes zeroed in on the Ren's petite frame and barked out a laugh before speaking.

"You're the one who's been causing us all this trouble? Ha! Killing weak humans is easy, but you don't send a _boy_ to do a _man's_ job. "The demon spoke with a deep, gravelly voice and due to the two protruding and incredibly large canines that jutted out from his jaw he sounded like he was grunting rather than actually speaking.

"You'll be pleased to find that I am not a boy, since I have started something called puberty and I am a kind of human…of sorts." Ren began to smirk, his voice pleasant and smooth as he spoke, eyes glinting with mischief as he looked up at the giant oni. "Of all the cliché things you could have said, you say "Don't send a boy to do a man's job"? In that case I'd say you don't send an idiot to be your bodyguard or a weakling to guard your treasure."

"Idiot?! Weakling?!" The demon roared. "Don't you know who I am?! I am Bakugan! The strongest demon in all of the Western Japan! I will -"

"Yes and you will huff and puff and try to blow my house down." Ren interrupted with a bored tone. "I've met the demon lord of western Japan and I'm sure he would be rolling in his grave to know that a jumped up, prideful and pitiful beast such as yourself has arrogantly tried to lay claim to such a title."

"Why you little -" Bakugan roared as he rushed at his tiny opponent his huge fists open and ready to grab Ren with the intention of crushing the smart mouthed boy only to grab air as he looked in confusion at his empty palm.

"For the 'strongest demon in all of Western Japan' you're rather slow." Ren spoke mockingly from his perch on Bakugan's gigantic shoulder blades. Grabbing Bakugan's mane, Ren jumped swinging quickly round Bakugan's shoulder using some of his spirit energy to increase his speed and momentum, ripping off the demon's head with brute force.

"For some reason I thought that would be more exciting." Ren mused as he stared at the decapitated head in his small hands before tossing it the side and walking away as it rolled towards its headless body. Ren walked slowly around the room that seemed to leave him at a dead end. Cocking his head slightly Ren walked up to the now blood stained walls and gently trailed the tips of his fingers on the walls as he walked past before stopping abruptly. Crouching down Ren slid his fingers into a small crevice at the bottom of the wall where there was a small dip in the marble floor. A section of the wall opened up to reveal a dimly lit corridor that would only realistically allow two average sized men standing shoulder to shoulder through.

Ren walked briskly through the stone corridor and up the stairs meeting another hidden doorway with a bright yellow light seeping in through the crevices. Pushing for a moment against the door, Ren stepped back before noticing a loose stone that jutted a few millimetres out from the rest of the wall. Shrugging his shoulders Ren pushed the stone and stepped back, watching as the door shifted towards him and slid to the side revealing a well-furnished office with a tall man in a light blue suit and white silk shirt and matching tie stood leaning against an ornate desk. Stepping into the room Ren looked to the sides nodding his head slightly as he took in the sophisticated atmosphere of the office, and taking into account the tied up and scared looking girl in the corner of the room.

"So you're the little brat that's been sent after me eh? Who put you up to it Sakyo? The BB Club? Or is it the police?" The man spoke, his voice was charming, almost silky. If it wasn't for the number of hired men in suits and the large, but weak, daemon he had hired for his protection he looked and sounded like a member of high society.

"Oh no. I simply represent a private third party who wishes for me to rid them of the vermin problem they have been experiencing lately." Ren spoke with the same amicable tone, only this time it was slightly different his smile was coy and his eyes held a glint of something that the man just could not place.

"But you aren't a normal human, you must be a demon."

"What makes you say that?"

"You got rid of all of my men and my demon Bakugan and you don't have a scratch on you."

In response Ren inclined his head. "I guess, but just because I'm capable of feats beyond that of an ordinary human, that doesn't immediately make me a supernatural creature." 

"Then what the hell does that make you then eh?" The man asked.

"In this form I am to be a human and so a human I shall be." Ren answered simply as the man frowned slightly at his wording.

This kid was seriously weird and there was no way _he_ was the one responsible for killing his men, thought the man. There had to be a team he was working with. _Yes, that's it_ , he thought, _they're using this kid to throw me off_. The man smirked as he 'figured out' the strange boy's plan.

"So how much is this "third party" paying you? I can double it, triple it even. Just come and work for me."

"Thanks for the offer, but no thanks."

"So what do you want if not money? Drinks? Drugs? Women? Just tell me what you want I'll pay you as much money you want! Just come and work for me as a body guard!"

"That's... rather disgusting. Women are people, living breathing beings who have human or in some cases such as your sister over there demon rights. Money? I have plenty of that. Drugs? Alcohol? What use are such things to me? I have no interest in material goods. They don't motivate me." Ren spoke and looked at the man with a look of haughty disdain. "For someone who surrounds himself with finery and what you _think_ is sophisticated; corrupted humans like yourself do enjoy indulging in disgusting practices. My benefactor has promised payment that is worth more than any material good that you could ever think of offering me, besides I have my own cute usagi-chan waiting for me."

(With Koenma)

"What!" Koenma shouted in outrage. "That's the biggest load of baloney I've ever heard!"

Everyone in the room sweat dropped slightly. "I have no interest in such things" _he says less than an hour after he forces Koenma to pay him for his service_ everyone thought.

"Calm down Koenma, I'm sure he has a very good reason for this." Botan said making patting movements with her hands.

"Yes, I'm sure he has a _great_ reason Botan, asking for money to work for me and then doing stuff like this for free!" Koenma said sarcastically sitting back in his chair and stroppily folding his arms.

(With Ren) 

"Souls? Is that what you want? 'Cause if that's what you're after I've got plenty of them to offer -" The man asked a little desperate as he tried to find something, anything that would suit this weird kid and his team's price tag.

"I assume you mean the 12 no, 20 people you have trapped underneath this mansion? 10 male, 10 female, half are children and 7 of them are demons if my eyes are correct." Ren smirked up at the man who had slowly began to lose his confident composure as the conversation went on slowly becoming visibly desperate.

"How?"

"I have very good eyes and nose, from here I can tell that your sister who is very scared and traumatized at the moment is in fact a half demon on her father's side which makes you, her half-brother, 100% human. So what? Your mother leaves your father for your sister's much richer father. Few years down the line your sister's born and everything's still going well. You do your best to learn about the family business only to find that you're not next in line, your little sister is. So you begin to hate your mother, step -father and sister. How do you get back on top? Simple kill your sister, but as her demon daddy's little girl you can't touch her, so you have you mother attacked and hurt, your father's distracted by the weakened state of your mother, have them both assassinated and alter the will so that your back on top. But just to get rid of possible loyalty your sister might inspire you sell her off to the highest bidder on the black market. How far off am I?" Ren spoke slowly as he walked slowly closer to the corner of the room where the girl sat, tears streaming down her face.

"Hit it right on the head. My mother was a whore! Selling herself to that monster!" The man spat in anger and disgust.

"Hmm has mother issues. That's another thing to add to your file." Ren spoke with his back facing the man as he crouched in front of the girl. His eyes became gentle and his voice lowered in timbre and sounded soft, comforting and slightly hypnotizing. "Hello, my name is Ren. What's your name?"

"H-Hana" The girl spoke softly, she seemed calmer now listening to Ren's soothing voice.

"Well Hana, I don't think you should see this next bit." Ren spoke apologetically as he reached into his hoodie pocket pulling out a set of skull candy earbuds and an iPod. Ren gently placed the earbuds into Hana's ears and plugged it into the iPod scrolling down to some soothing classical music and placing it in her hands. "Okay Miss Hana, I need you to press play in a minute and turn the music up until you can't hear anything else but the music and close your eyes, okay?"

"Are you here to help me?" Hana asked after nodding. Her eyes were full of innocence and trust despite the cruelty she had most likely suffered at the hands of her brother. In response Ren smiled gently at the girl, placing his right hand on her head petting her head reassuringly; pressing play and turning up the volume for Hana, who did as she was told and squeezed her eyes shut.

Standing up Ren turned to the man, all the gentle and softness in his eyes gone. It was replaced by the odd glint and coy, almost seductive smile.

"Aww isn't that cute? If you want I can sell her to you-" The man spoke condescendingly only for Ren to disappear and reappear in a split second in front of him removing his tie from around his neck and back to Hana's still form and using the tie as a blindfold just to make sure she wouldn't open her eyes and see her brother's gruesome murder.

"I know blood is only so thick and can only go so far, but as a human, no, as a person I would have thought you would have some _standards_." Ren said, disgust evident in his quiet voice. "But, then again, with a soul as corrupted is yours, such an expectation is like asking for a miracle."

The man looked offended, but at the same time felt scared of the boy. He seemed to move with a quiet confidence and power that made him think that this boy, whoever he was, _had_ been the one to murder all his men and the demon bodyguard he had hired.

Ren walked past the man and casually sat on his desk and crossing his legs.

"Let's get down to business, shall we?" He asked, and without waiting for an answer carried on speaking, pulling out a small black handbook and flicking through the pages until he found the right one. "Name: Sousuke Haruko, aged 35. Description: black hair, brown eyes, blood type O. Known relatives: Hana Haruko. Crimes committed includes drug dealing, owner ship of multiple illegal gambling dens, the sale of illegal firearms otherwise known as gun smuggling, money laundering, bribing ministers and members of the police force, selling humans and demons in the black market, and no list of offenses can be complete without murder and statutory rape."

Ren looked up at Sousuke from the top of his handbook, watching as Sousuke paled, staring in horror at him as he finished listing off Sousuke's deepest sins.

"I know I've done all sorts of things in my lifetime and I've seen a lot, I mean I've been around," Ren said in mild disgust. "But even I know where to draw the line."

"H-how?" Sousuke stuttered, his tongue thick as he swallowed, trying to wet his dry mouth.

"It's my job to know the sins of the soul. To weigh and calculate one's worth and judge where they belong when they die." Ren explained closing his book and placing it back in his trouser pocket. "Had I not been given this…assignment, you sir, would have carried on your merry way trafficking demons and humans and corrupting what little soul you have left."

Sousuke's eyes widened in horror, bulging slightly as he opened and closed his mouth like a fish out of water desperately trying to breath.

"Now, as it is my job to rid my benefactor of their problem, I have been told to rid the world of your…physical presence." Ren said with a smile, teeth glinting slightly in the light of the room. "However I must admit, I'm at a bit of a crossroads. You see your case is now, technically, a matter for Spirit World to solve being that you have been trafficking both humans and demons and even if you are arrested by the police, all those corrupt officials in your pocket will simply set you free."

Sousuke looked hopeful as he looked at Ren, but didn't dare to step closer to him. From the way Sousuke looked at it, there was a chance this boy wouldn't kill him. He seemed undecided at what he should do. Maybe he could persuade him to let him go.

"Fine, okay - take me to Spirit World! You don't have to kill me!" Sousuke shouted desperately, pleading with the younger male.

"See normally I _would_ agree with you, that I don't _have_ to kill you. That would be if I was representing Spirit World, which in this case I am not. And my benefactor and I cannot entrust Spirit World to deal with your case in a timely manner." Ren said titling his head slightly and smiling. "The fact is I have been expressly told that your life must be cut short and everything accounted for or else I won't get paid."

Sousuke lost all the colour in his face and began to scrabble back to the door as Ren continued to speak with a smile on his face. Had this been in any other situation, i.e., had Ren not been threatening another person's life it could have been described as cute and a **lot** less unnerving and disturbing.

"But do not worry, Reikai will still judge you, and thankfully for me, you do not require a physical body to travel and be judged there." Ren finished, removing his black gloves and rolling up his sleeves. Sousuke's nerves had reached their breaking point and his sanity was giving way to fear.

"You- you little piece of shit! I'm gonna-" Sousuke screamed, eyes bulging in fear as he pulled out a handgun. However his threat was cut short and all he could manage was choked screams of pain.

Ren had pinned Sousuke to the floor and was crouching on his abdomen, half of his arm impaled within Sousuke's chest. His hand had entered just under Sousuke's rib cage and moved upwards to Sousuke's heart.

"Too slow." Ren tutted softly with a slight chuckle as he grabbed Sousuke's heart and squeezed it tightly in his hand. Sousuke choked and squealed, his eyes rolling in their sockets, mouth hung open as he tried to move past the never ending pain. His arms flailed, trying to push Ren off him, but started to spasm when Ren squeezed his heart, digging his nails into it.

Ignoring Sousuke's high pitched screams and choked pleas to let him go, to stop the pain, Ren began to slowly pull Sousuke's heart down before quickly ripping it out of Sousuke's chest. Sousuke's arms stopped flailing and he stopped screaming, the life going out in his eyes as blood poured out and stained his shirt.

Tossing away the heart, which hit the wall with a loud splat, Ren removed Sousuke's blazer and used it to wipe away the blood on his hand and arms and any which may have sprayed on his face. Looking down at Sousuke and seeing the gun in his hand, Ren couldn't help but chuckle.

"Maybe you'll be faster the next time around."

Ren walked over to Hana, picked her up bridal style as though she was light as a feather walking out of the room and walking down the grand staircase down and off into a lounge room and carefully sat Hana down onto a plush sofa, before gently taking off the tie blindfold and removing the earbuds, turning off the iPod and returning it to his place in his hoodie pocket. Hana blinked rapidly as her eyes began to adjust to the blinding light of the lounge. Looking around and seeing Ren gently removing the rope that had bruised her wrists and ankles.

"Is he- is he gone?" Hana whispered. Ren looked up from inspecting the bruises on Hana's delicate wrists.

"Yes, you're safe now." Ren assured the girl as he tossed the ropes away.

"Are you going to take me away?" Hana asked hopefully wishing that this person who, despite killing her older brother, despite being a stranger, had shown her more care than her brother had in months; would take her far away from this place. Ren looked into her eyes, an almost apologetically before standing and placing a hand on her head.

"I'm sorry Miss Hana, I'm not."

"But I thought-"

"I wasn't sent here for you." Ren interrupted his voice hard, making Hana flinch slightly. Seeing her flinch, Ren softened his voice and looked gently at her. "I, like your brother, am not a good person. I'm a mercenary who is being paid to make your brother's death a warning for others. I'm not a hero, nor the type of person you should be spending time with."

Hana looked a little crestfallen and confused. This person who had saved her from her brother claimed to be a bad person, like her brother, but to her he wasn't. Sousuke was cruel and he hurt her, and watched as he let other people hurt her. But this person, this stranger, had been kind. He was gentle and unlike Sousuke, he didn't scare her, so why was he trying to convince her that he was like her brother?

Seeing her look so sad, Ren looked away for a second and sighed through his nose, thinking about what he should do now.

"Miss Hana, I wasn't sent here for you, I was sent here for your brother." Ren said after he turned his head to look at her. "And I will be leaving soon, but you won't be left here for very long. Spirit World is going to send people to take you somewhere safe."

"How do you know they'll come?" Hana asked looking at Ren, hoping that she could believe this person.

At this question Ren smiled coyly before stating: "I know because they're watching us right now, and I've made them a big red sign that they cannot, are not allowed to ignore."

As he said this Ren looked to the side straight at the T.V screen that Reikai Tantei, Koenma, Jorge the Ogre and Botan had been watching.

(With Koenma)  
"H-how did he know we're watching him Koenma sir?" Jorge asked, panicking at the coy smile Ren was sending them all. "You don't think he knows about us-"

"He does know ogre." Koenma interrupted. "Ren has spent 700 years in the cells and I don't doubt that he's heard about every secret Spirit World has. Hell, he probably knows more about the going on of Spirit World than I do!"

"But that's not possible, he can't have heard-" Kuwabara said in disbelief until Hiei quickly shot that idea down.

"He's a warrior, idiot, of course he knows. Do you think he was resting patiently and wasting his time? He probably bided his time to gain more information before deciding the time was right."

"Ah- shut it shorty! Just cause you got some weirdo hero worship for this guy doesn't mean-" Kuwabara retorted, glaring down at the shorter demon male as he was interrupted again only this time by Yusuke, who had been the quietest they'd ever heard him, so far.

"Will you guys shut up? I'm try'na watch this!"

(With Ren)

Ren was now walking out of the lounge as he held his phone to his ear, moving back up the stairs and into the office where Sousuke's body lay , listening to the other person on the phone as he searched Sousuke's body for some keys.

"Yes, the pest and all of his guards were killed."

Finding a set of keys and pocketing them, Ren placed his phone between his shoulder and ear as he pulled Sousuke's corpse into his desk chair, and sitting him up. "What shall be done about the prisoners and his sister? I thought you didn't want any loose ends."

Walking behind the desk he pulled a large portrait of Sousuke to find a large vault door. "Yes...Will do…If you say so. Yeah, I'm getting it now. I'll report back when I can."

Hanging up the phone and placing it back in his trouser pocket, Ren began to quickly spin the dial before it clicked and opened with ease. Stepping inside the vault Ren was surrounded by money, guns and jewellery. Ren began to sift through the priceless jewels and money, muttering about where "it" was. After tossing away a diamond necklace, Ren found an ancient tome, smiling happily and carefully tucking it under his arm and walking out and closing the vault. Ren almost walked out the door before remembering the key in his pocket. Twirling around Ren opened a few desk drawers and found a roll of scotch tape and a post it note. Ren then neatly wrote which key would fit into which door and used the scotch tape to tape the keys to Sousuke's chest whilst putting the post it note on the body's forehead. Nodding at his handiwork Ren left the office and just as he was about to leave, popped his head into the lounge to bid Hana farewell before stepping outside and literally disappearing into thin air.


	7. Chapter 7

In Koenma's Office:

"What do need us to do now?" Yusuke asked looking to Koenma.

After watching Ren beat a small army of men and one demon, Yusuke was feeling pumped, adrenaline was racing through his system and he was itching for a fight of his own. Yusuke's mind was going a mile a minute as he thought of what a fight with Hiei and Kurama versus Ren would be like, how much fun it would be to watch them duke it out and see who was stronger. Kurama said that Ren is stronger than him, but part of Yusuke was questioning it, after all, not every legend or story is 100% accurate. His thoughts of a small battle royal between the two demons and human-demon body merge were brought to a halt when he heard Kurawabara's loud voice.

"We're going to help that girl, right Koenma?" Kuwabara asked eagerly as Botan and Kurama smiled at Kuwabara's honourable and emphatic nature. Koenma on the other hand frowned, unsure as to what action he should take. He couldn't ignore what had happened because soon one of his reapers would be retrieving Sousuke Haruko's soul for judgement, nor could he just leave Haruko Hanna in the mansion alone with the demons and humans that were meant for the black market and with rooms of dead guards (more souls for his reapers to retrieve and even more paperwork). Koenma had to concede that cleaning up Ren's mess _could_ encourage Ren to work with them. At the same time, he _really_ didn't want to prove Ren right and send people to clean up the mess he'd made because it could, potentially, pander to Ren's delinquent behaviour. However, it _was_ his duty to judge the souls of the dead.

Sighing and rubbing his temples Koenma felt frustrated at the situation Ren had forced him into. His hands were now tied because he simply could not leave things as they were, and to his aggravation, Ren _knew it._ Now Koenma knew why his father was so reluctant to do anything about Ren, and told him to be careful. Ren clearly wasn't just a thug mercenary; he's intelligent, cunning and had used his time in captivity wisely to gain information about Spirit World.

"Koenma?" Botan asked concerned at his lack of response. _'He's not just going to leave everything as it is...is he?_ ' Botan worriedly thought.

"Koenma sir?" Jorge the Ogre asked Koenma with increasing worry at the Prince's silence. 

Koenma, pushing aside his personal feelings towards this, began to weigh the good that would and had come out of this: Ren had saved the humans and demons that had been intended for the Black Market. Hana Haruko has been saved (she'd been left in a mansion that was now mostly filled with corpses but yeah…saved.) Ren had put an end to something that Spirit World wasn't fully aware of (even if he did kill humans in the process of doing so, one of the highest offences.)

Carrying on with this train of thought, Koenma begrudging conceded that arrest and imprisonment wouldn't even be a punishment for him since he could easily escape and evade capture. _Probation wouldn't be the best idea either_ , thought Koenma, _Ren would probably kill the Spirit Detective team, probably out of boredom, and then be on his merry way_.

After a moment of silence Koenma sighed loudly and looked at Reikai Tantei and spoke authoritatively:

"The four of you will go and retrieve Hanna Haruko from her family's mansion and bring her here so that she will be put under witness protection until we can find her a suitable guardian. You will also bring Ren here as well. I will send another team to bring the prisoners under the mansion here to have their health and mental state evaluated.

"Alright! We're going to bring him to justice!" Kuwabara shouted enthusiastically to Yusuke, Kurama and Hiei, his fist aloft as he imagined the shining moment of bringing Ren (who he honestly thought was even _worse_ than Hiei at this point) to justice, preferably in shackles.

Yusuke on the other hand was thinking, rather hopefully, that he _would_ get to see a _real_ fight between Ren, Kurama and Hiei.

Hiei snorted at Kuwabara's naivety.

"What? You got something to say shrimp boy?!" Kuwabara sneered down at the demon that in turn stared in boredom up at him and rolled his eyes.

"Ss if Ren would be so easily caught, especially by the likes of humans."Hiei scoffed. Kuwabara and Yusuke bristled at Hiei's insult, but Kuwabara was the most bothered by Hiei's words because he knew they were mostly directed at him.

"J-just shut up shorty, it's not like you'd be able to capture him anyway!" Kuwabara bit back quickly and turning away huffily. "I'm right, right Koenma? We're gonna arrest him aren't we?"

Koenma sighed and despite his childish form, Reikai Tantei noticed that Koenma suddenly looked so tired...and old.

"No, Kuwabara you're not. You are to bring Ren to Spirit World where he will, hopefully accept his new assignment." Koenma said his usually shrill voice full of disappointment.

Everyone blinked in surprise, stunned into silence at Koenma's words. Slowly the group nodded their heads in understanding and turned to leave.


	8. Chapter 8

"What do you think was wrong with Koenma?" Botan asked as they walked down the corridor away from Koenma's office. Botan was worried about Koenma, ever since they had this case; he hadn't been acting like his usual self.

"Beats me, all I know is it's got something to do with that Ren guy." Kuwabara said darkly.

"What do you have against the guy anyway?" Yusuke asked. "I mean sure he killed a lot of those guys (correction all of them), but they knew what they were getting into right? I mean he doesn't seem **that** bad."

"It's not just that Urameshi, there's something about him that's just...sinister." Kuwabara said looking down at his feet, his face scrunched up in concentration. The others looked at Kuwabara in curiosity and surprise. Ren, other than the morbid humour and possibly sadistic tendencies didn't seem all that evil, or as Kuwabara put it, sinister.

"Sinister?" Kurama asked curiously.

"What do you mean?" Botan asked Kuwabara.

Kuwabara scratched his head, wracking his brain for the right words to describe the feeling he got when he was near Ren. "It's just the feelin' I get, you know?"

The others just looked at him blankly, making Kuwabara scrunch his face in thought, trying to explain _why_ he didn't like him.

"There's just somethin' about this guy I don't like." Kuwabara shrugged before beginning to speak loudly and in his usual impassioned tone. "I mean what kind of job is that?! Who kills people and goes around calling it a job?!"

"Uh, we do?" said Yusuke. Kuwabara looked at Yusuke for a few minutes before realising what he meant. So far on pretty much every case they had had included hurting or killing their enemies. The only difference between them and Ren was that all their enemies had been demons (except Toukune, who Kuwabara thought as a monster, not as a human being.). Now that Kuwabara thought about it, really thought about it, Hiei was…well Hiei and had probably killed countless demons and possibly humans before. Kurama well…he didn't actually know that much about Kurama's past.

"Forget it." Kuwabara huffed in defeat looking down, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "Let's just go." He continued to mumble.

The others (apart from Hiei, who just rolled his eyes) shared looks of concern over Kuwabara's actions.

(Outside Sousuke's Mansion)

The group were stood outside debating what the best way to proceed. The best, and what Yusuke hoped was, the easiest and quickest way to convince Hana Haruko to trust, listen and leave with them and go to Spirit World. Honestly, there was no real debate; they were all stood in relative silence making "er" noises, trying to think up a plan because they were all at a complete loss as to what they should do. This was because this assignment, or mission…problem wasn't something that they could solve with their fists, unlike their normal cases, which mostly consisted of them beating up the next monster of the moment.

The main contributor to the five of them not knowing what to was due to the fact that they didn't spend that much time, if any, with girls. The males unanimously agreed that Botan didn't have the necessary tact, discretion and persuasive ability needed for this case, and so ruled out. This was to Botan's chagrin, but they had all agreed, so there was nothing she could really do about it. The others didn't really know how to interact with girls peacefully: Hiei doesn't really talk to…well anyone, so he was bust and when Yusuke spoke to girls or to the females in general, he tended to piss them off and they (Hiei) didn't trust Kuwabara to not stutter and possibly say the wrong thing to Hana. Eventually they all decided that Kurama was the most qualified to talk to Hana because…they didn't really say the reason for it but they all silently agreed that out of the males in their group, Kurama was the most feminine and had a better idea of how to navigate the possible social minefield a conversation with a female.

Now that they had figured out who was going to talk to Hana, and since it was Kurama, they all assumed that he was going to succeed, the next problem was just _how_ they were going to… _persuade_ Ren into helping them or to willingly go with them to Spirit World. Despite Ren not making a fuss the first time, due to him going on his own terms more than anything, they had a feeling that Ren wouldn't be so accommodating this time.

The first idea (made by Yusuke and partially Botan) was to threaten or more accurately, blackmail Ren into using what Yusuke called his 'silver tongue' to help them convince Hana to go with them. This idea was shot down, mostly by Hiei, because as Hiei had 'helpfully' pointed out, they had no blackmail material on Ren for them to use. The other reasons were that:

Kuwabara didn't want to associate with Ren unless absolutely necessary and he thought that using Ren to persuade Hana made him feel like they were deceiving the girl.

Even though Ren didn't seem like 'that bad' (according to Yusuke), he also didn't seem particularly trustworthy. The others also agreed this point.

Although Yusuke and Kuwabara wouldn't admit it (and Botan did), Ren scared them.

So, after a lot of deliberation i.e. loud and long winded arguments, they all finally reached a decision which they all agreed with. Kurama and Botan would talk to Hana. Yusuke and Kuwabara would be stood in the background, trying to look as harmless as they can. Kurama did state that Yusuke and Kuwabara were free to join in and speak to Hana should they feel the need to.

Hiei, being the fastest out of all of them and with the use of his Jagan eye, would find and persuade Reninto going with him to Reikai. Yusuke suggested that Hiei use his Jagan to hypnotise Ren into complying like he did with the humans when Hiei was trying to take over the world. Hiei shot this down by scoffing and stating that it's only effective if the victim is mentally weak and weak willed. Hiei was doing this part of the plan because as he was the fastest it would mean that he could, hopefully, deal with Ren quickly and because he actually volunteered to go. That being said, Yusuke and Kuwabara helpfully (or not so helpfully) stated that Hiei couldn't look non-threatening even if his life depended upon it. That and Hiei wasn't afraid of Ren, unlike Yusuke and Kuwabra and while Kurama did also volunteer to retrieve Ren, Hiei told him to convince Hana because he didn't trust the three fools to not screw up.

Yusuke even proposed that they, Kurama and Botan, use Ren as 'bait' to lure or as he put it 'convince' Hana to go with them. Yusuke suggested this on the basis that he thought Hana would want to see Ren again and by saying that if she came with them, she would get to see Ren. To the others (except Kuwabara) this seemed like a good addition to the plan since it would make convincing Hana much easier.

With this plan in place, Hiei left to find Ren, and while he had a hunch that Ren would be at Genkai's, used his Jagan to locate him. Hiei was rather glad that he wasn't with the fox and the fools because he'd much rather think of a way to persuade Ren that coax the fear stricken girl into trusting them.

Hiei found Ren sitting cross legged in a room in Genkai's temple, his rabbit Miffy-Chan sat on his head, reading the ancient tome that was sat on a pillow on a kotetsu table. Sensing Hiei approach and hearing him enter the room, Ren looked up and acknowledged Hiei's presence and greeted him with a slow nod, mindful of Miffy-Chan's precarious perch on his head.

"Koenma has an assignment for you." Hiei stated after returning Ren's nod. Ren looked at Hiei and carefully closed the delicate book.

"And what does Koenma want me to do?" Ren asked. "Does he want me to return the book? Clean up the mess I made of the wannabe mobsters and demon? Or does he want me to take responsibility of Hana Haruko?"

Hiei looked at Ren for a moment before answering in his usual monotone, but instead of his usual haughty arrogance was replaced with a small hint of respect. "It could be all those things, or something else. Either way, I don't know, Koenma didn't tell me."

Ren clucked their tongue in response, tutting at Koenma's apparent 'need' to keep everything a 'secret', musing that it would be his or Spirit World's downfall one day. Hiei nodded in agreement, mostly out of annoyance due to Koenma's habit of having or giving them very little information for them to go off on. Hiei was glad to have someone to complain with since Kurama would always counter his arguments with logic (that he didn't always care for.)

For a few minutes Ren and Hiei were silent and unmoving as Ren silently debated whether he should go or not. Looking up at Hiei, Ren asked Hiei if Koenma said that the matter was of life and death importance, to which Hiei replied that Koenma had not. Then Ren asked Hiei if _he_ thought that the matter was of life and death importance. Hiei was taken aback by Ren's question before stating that he thought that it wasn't. Ren nodded, taking in Hiei's answer.

Ren knew that he didn't _have_ to go, however at the same time not going could lead to him losing what could be valuable information. Ren swayed between logic and personal feelings about immediately being needed. After a few moments Ren sighed softly and nodded, silently agreeing and carefully standing up and following Hiei to Spirit World. From the way Ren saw it, he would hear Koenma out, see what he wanted and if he didn't like what Koenma wants of him or doesn't find it particularly interesting, then he would reject the case. After all, Koenma also has his band of misfits to do whatever job he needed them to do, and half…or 75% of the group appear competent enough to fulfil Koenma's missions.

Hiei was definitely glad that he had this job and not what Kurama was tasked with, although he was surprised that Ren was so compliant. But from the looks of it, Ren had come to the decision himself and probably had some kind of ulterior motive for going with him to see Koenma. Clearly this had been the easier job.

Ren had not been surprised with the Spirit Detective Team's choice of messenger since Yusuke appeared to be rather brash and impulsive with next to no mind to mouth filter, which would annoy him to no end. Kuwabara was idealistic and naïve. Kurama was a fox demon and quite possible the Youko Kurama from demon world, and was clearly the 'brain' of the group. Based on this, only Hiei and or Kurama were the best choice, that and they didn't reek of fear when Ren left Koenma's office to work.


	9. Chapter 9: Ren's Challenge

Chapter 9

Ren and Hiei stood in silence as they stared rather blankly at Koenma, who was trying (and failing) not to squirm. Koenma shifted uncomfortably, trying to hide how intimidating they both were (and how much they actually scared him) and swallowed nervously. Koenma opened his mouth to speak, to tell them what was going to happen next but thought better of it, deciding to wait for Yusuke and the others in order to debrief everyone at the same time. Koenma closed his mouth and then coughed nervously. Since he opened his mouth to speak, he had Ren and Hiei's full attention and, trying to hide his nervousness and cleared his throat. Koenma was thinking of trying to make some kind of small talk with the two in front of him, but decided against it since Hiei…was Hiei and Ren seemed to emanate an air of authority tinged with bloodlust which made him think twice about wanting to start a conversation with him.

Hiei scoffed at Koenma's cowardice. He found Koenma's impression of a fish annoying and just wished that Koenma would just say what he wanted to tell them. If Koenma had something to say, then he should just go ahead and say it. Hiei huffed through his nose in irritation just as Ren sighed quietly in exasperation.

Ren's patience with Koenma was dwindling quickly. The whole situation was enough to make Ren want to turn and leave since _Koenma_ had called him here to offer him an assignment, only to not say _anything_. At this point Ren was wondering whether or not Koenma had just called him here to waste his time. Ren wasn't just exasperated with Koenma, but with King Enma as well. He thought it was just _typical_ of Enma, the so called _"Great"_ King of Spirit World to put his wet behind the ears son in charge of **all** the administrative work within Spirit World, all while he spends _his_ going on holiday (which appears to be all the time). And when he _is_ around, he doesn't do any actual work … unless posturing counts as work…

 _'Lazy King.'_ Ren tsked silently, rolling their eyes and crossing their arms a little impatiently.

Sighing through his nose and silently tapping his fingers on his arm, Ren began to ponder about the job assignment Koenma had for them and just _why_ this particular group had tickled his interest enough for him to want to learn more about them.

' _Is it the whole group together?'_ Ren wondered, questioning whether or not it was due to the fact that the group appeared to be a band of misfits who, on the surface, seemed to have an unlikely friendship. Ren thought that it was the kind of scenario that was in comedy anime or movies.

" _Or is it the individual members?'_ Ren asked himself, looking at Hiei through the corner of their eye, since Hiei was the only one there at the moment. Ren considered the more _interesting_ individuals on the team: the two humans with high and abnormally high spiritual awareness. The two boys really didn't look the type to be spiritually aware, or be worthy of Spirit World bringing them back to life, but Ren did concede that people like them were born once in a while, but were a very rare occurrence. In addition to their... _unusual_ talents the two boys appeared to be a wealth of untapped talent and potential…not like they appeared to realise this fact. Plus it looked like their…thug or 'bad boy' behaviour was more of a phase caused by teenage angst or discontent and underneath their piles of crap, they actually appeared to be, as much as Ren was loath to term them in such a way, 'good guys'.

Ren's thought's then turned to the group's demon counterparts, and in Ren's opinion slightly less interesting, than the humans, but still far more interesting than most people. Kurama appeared to be quite…domesticated in Ren's eyes, although, Ren did have to admit that Kurama was _not_ someone Ren wanted as an enemy, even if Kurama was now in a weaker, human form. Hiei, a fire apparition who apparently didn't use fire, with a 'fake' Jagan eye. According to Reikai's files he was a natural loner and in Ren's opinion a near perfect specimen of Makai, raised by 'nature' as opposed to 'nurture' and despite his actions and words, Ren perceived Hiei to be more childish than he let on. However, like Kurama, not one to be underestimated since he-

Ren's train of thought was cut short by the incredibly loud entrance that was made by the rest of the Reikai Tantei and their 'guest' (Yusuke and Kuwabara). _'They are a bull in a china shop.'_ Thought Ren, who could already feel his eardrums shake at the volume of noise the two boys were making. It was clear that Yusuke and Kuwabara weren't exactly made for stealth…or even understood the concept. Ren winced internally at the sound the door being opened with a bang and had to wonder just how hadn't Hiei and Kurama not been already rendered deaf by the din Yusuke and Kuwabara seemed incapable of not making.

When Ren's eyes passed over Hana Haruko's form, he had to look again once more just be sure that she was actually there. Once determining that she was in fact present, Ren's eyes narrowed, his mind putting all the pieces of Koenma's plan into place in his mind. Ren pursed his lips slightly before changing his expression back to being stoically blank and looking back at Koenma.

Yusuke and Kuwabara were making noises of surprise and were admittedly a little dumbstruck by the fact that Hiei had, somehow, managed to convince Ren to come, although Kuwabara thought it had to something to do with the fact that Ren and Hiei were both short, untrustworthy and possibly kind of evil.

"How the hell did ya convince Ren to come along?" Yusuke asked his friend smiling and walking over to Hiei, not particularly caring or bothered by Hiei's scowl since Hiei was always scowling or glaring at people or things…or just life in general.

"I didn't." Hiei replied simply.

"Oh, so did you do the uh, did you use your er…you know?" Yusuke asked making awkward gestures to Hiei's Jagan eye.

"No. Ren came here of his own volition." Hiei answered, irritation colouring his tone as Hiei's eyebrows began to furrow. Yusuke and Kuwabara made noises of surprise and even Kurama's eyebrows rose a little.

"What? Really?!" Yusuke said loudly in surprise looking back and forth at Ren and Hiei. Kuwabara felt a little disbelief that Ren just up and came after he made such a fuss about wanting to do work according to however he wanted it.

"What?" Ren asked the others, raising his eyebrow. "Do you think that I would ignore Koenma and flout the rules just because I'm strong enough to force Koenma to let me do as I please?" (Despite Ren's, what was meant to be a rhetorical, question, even Ren knew that it was actually true, he did whatever he wanted, regardless of the rules or laws because he knew just what he needed to do to avoid punishment.)

Knowing that this was a rather loaded question, Kurama opened his mouth to protest and deny this statement, to field the question and prevent Yusuke and Kuwabara from causing Ren's ire. However Kurama's efforts were all for nought because he just didn't answer fast enough.

"Yes." Yusuke and Kuwabara instantly and loudly replied. Ren rolled his eyes at their response muttering "of course" and pursing his lips slightly.

"I gotta admit, it's pretty cool though." Yusuke admitted scratching the skin underneath his ear.

"No, it's wrong!" Kuwabara said indignantly. "People shouldn't have the power to just be let off for the stuff they do wrong! It's not right!"

"Kuwabara, do you reject the principle of strength and power being enough for a person to be exempt the 'rules' and free to do as they desire because you find it abhorrent, going against your understanding of right and wrong, what is just and unjust?" Ren asked Kuwabara. "Or do you reject this principle purely because _I_ appear to be a part of or uphold such a principle?"

Kuwabara looked surprised by this question and the stoic expression on Ren's face and opened and closed his mouth, trying to come up with a response. Ren raised their eyebrow, silently questioning and taunting him with his lack of response.

Fearing the possibility of a fight, Koenma cleared his throat nervously, looking uncomfortable with the situation, his eyes darting from Ren to Kuwabara before going to the rest of the Reikai Tantei. Koenma was not used to feeling tension in his office, especially not from his own team.

"Nevermind. Forget I said anything." Ren said, 'smiling' at the Reikai Tantei (which was more of a flashing of teeth than anything). "Besides, it was a sound assumption that was made based upon my previous actions. The arrogance of youth is something to be expected, admired even, even if it leads to an early grave."

Swallowing and working his tongue to wet his mouth, Koenma coughed lightly to get everyone's attention back on him and smiled gently and welcomingly at Hana Haruko, who was still looking a little nervous around his team.

"Hello, Miss Haruko, I am Koenma the Chief Administrator and Crown Prince of Reikai." Koenma said, introducing himself.

In response Hana nodded shyly, murmuring out a quiet 'Hello', not quite sure if she was supposed to curtsy while greeting a prince, whilst also surprised that the Chief Administrator of Reikai was actually a baby. Hana only managed a shy nod in greeting, her eyes darting around the room and landing on Ren, surprised to see him there working with and for Reikai after he tried convincing her, and adamantly told her that he wasn't, isn't a 'good person'.

"I would like to personally welcome you to Reikai," Koenma continued. "I would like to introduce you to the Spirit Detective Yusuke Urameshi, his assistant Botan, and the rest of the Reikai Tantei: Kazuma Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei and our newest member, Ren."

Botan smiled and waved at Hana, trying to help her relax and ease her into the situation she was now in. Kurama also smiled courteously at the half demon, employing the same reassuring and gentle smile he used in front of his mother, neighbours, classmates and teachers. Hiei just glanced at Hana, whereas Ren's lips curled up slightly in a barely there smile. Yusuke and Kuwabara on the other hand grumbled about how Hana refused to trust them (them being Kurama, Kuwabara, Botan (technically Hiei) and himself) until Kurama had told her that they work with Ren. The fact that they had been sent by Spirit World, apparently, meant nothing to her.

Koenma smiled at Hana, ignoring Yusuke and Kuwabara's grumblings. Loudly clearing his throat and looking at the two teenage humans, he silently told them with his eyes to _shut up_ , which they, thankfully heeded.

"Now, Miss Haruko, since you're brother's case was…taken care of before we were able to send our agents in to…solve the case and help you, and because of the nature and result of Sousuke Haruko's case leading to you being the sole heiress to your family fortune." Koenma explained, placing his tiny hands on his desk with his fingers entwined. "This has put you in a very vulnerable position Miss Haruko, as you could be targeted by people who may wish to take your fortune. And since you are still under the age of 16, you are officially considered a child without parental care. Therefore Reikai has decided that until your legal guardian is found, preferably someone who will not use you for their own personal gain, you will be assigned temporary guardians to protect and care for you."

Hana nodded along with Koenma's words, slowly taking everything in as reality finally caught up with her. Her mind was reeling and she realised the truth of the situation, although she was free from her brother's control, she was now an orphan without anyone to take care of her. Icy cold fear gripped her heart and guts, its merciless claws digging in and twisting her insides as she began to breathe heavily, eyes widening and tears began to form, mouth becoming dry. Despite hearing Koenma say that she would be given guardians to protect and care for her, Hana began to cry, tears rolling down her cheeks.

Seeing the tears fall, Botan rushed over to Hana's side, soothingly rubbing the girls back and speaking softly, telling her that everything would be alright. Koenma was at a loss as to what to do, and held out his hands telling her not to cry, that everything would be alright, trying not to panic. Kuwabara and Yusuke on the other hand just started panicking since they were _not_ equipped for _this_ kind of situation. Fighting bad guys with a slim chance of survival? Sure, why not? They could do it. Comforting a girl they just met after her brother was killed in front of her? Yeah…they'd rather not.

Since Yusuke and Kuwabara were completely useless in this situation, Kurama stepped in and 'suggested' that Yusuke and Kuwabara calm down, lest they make things even worse, and helped Botan comfort Hana. Hiei, being Hiei and not having all that much experience dealing with crying females…or people in general did what he was best at and remained in the background with a slight scowl on his face at the situation. Ren appeared indifferent to the situation, but the fact was that with Koenma trying to comfort the girl from behind his desk, and Kurama and Botan trying to sooth Hana; it would become crowded and possibly make the situation worse.

After a few minutes, Hana's sobs were reduced to hiccups with a few tears falling as she used some tissues that Koenma and Botan had given her to dry her tears. Seeing that her crying was slowly stopping Koenma carefully and gently asked Hana if she had any relatives that she knew were alive. However his questions were only met with Hana shaking her head and hiccupping that she didn't know, she didn't think she did.

"Koenma, with all due respect, I don't think Miss Haruko is in the right state of mind to think about such things right now." Ren told Koenma, making Kuwabara glare at him. "At this point I would recommend that we simply search for any documented relatives that Miss Haruko may have."

"No thanks to you!" Kuwabara shouted, pointing an accusing finger at Ren, who raised an eyebrow, silently asking him how it was his fault. "If you hadn't killed her brother and his guys, then she wouldn't be like this!"

"And based on your logic, then if Sousuke hadn't been a criminal, then I wouldn't have been sent to kill him." Ren retorted calmly, folding his arms and ignoring Kuwabara's exclamations of indignation and surprise at Ren's response. Yusuke opened his mouth to chime in, but Kurama knowing that arguing wouldn't help the situation at all, was forced to once again play peace keeper between the two of them.

"Arguing will not help Miss Haruko right now." Kurama said, stepping between Kuwabara and Ren (really Kurama was just standing in front of Kuwabara and pushing him back slightly).

"Kurama's right you two!" Botan scolded them patting Hana on her shoulder and walking over to Ren and Kuwabara with her hands on her hips. "This isn't about what Ren's done or whose fault it is! Eight now we should be trying to help Hana!"

"And how do you suppose we do that?" Hiei asked her from where he stood. "Do you want us to try to find her relatives as well?" He scoffed.

"No that is what _I_ will be doing." Koenma said folding his small arms over his chest. "What you will be doing is taking care of Hana, and keeping her safe as her temporary guardians."

"What?" Hiei half hissed. "All of us?"

"I didn't think that you considered us all to be _that_ incompetent to require the five of us together to be capable of protecting one person." Ren tutted without changing their stoic expression. Ren's statement made the others, especially Yusuke, Kuwabara and Hiei to glare at Koenma, who began stuttering and trying to explain that that was _not_ what he was saying and glared at Ren for making it seem as though he _had_ implied such a thing in the first place.

"That's _not_ what I'm saying." Koenma explained, his voice strained with stress. "What I'm saying is that your next assignment is for all or some of you to protect Miss Haruko while Reikai tries to find her next living relatives and guardians."

"And how do you expect us to do that if that is not what Miss Hana wants?" Ren said slowly, their head titled to the side with a look of complete boredom on his face. "As Yusuke and Kuwabara was saying before, Miss Hana doesn't trust any of us. How can we expect Miss Hana to trust strangers with her safety when she may not even know _what_ she wants now? Or knows, at this moment in time what is best for her?"

Ren's words made Koenma pause and internally curse the Sacred Spirit in front of him. What Ren was saying, to an extent, was in fact true. They _could not_ just force their will upon Miss Haruko and if she didn't know what she wanted, then they couldn't just force her to choose. Ren's words had opened up more problems for him as he now had to think of more or different options for him to give Miss Haruko without taking advantage of her more vulnerable state of mind. Koenma grit his teeth and part of him wished that Yusuke had _never_ found Ren, that he had never told Yusuke to find Ren.

"So what will you do now child Prince?" Ren asked him slowly as everyone watched the interaction, Hana sniffling slightly, slowly calming down to watch the calm and cool Ren challenge Koenma.


	10. Chapter 10: Koenma's Answer

Chapter 10

Koenma's eyes scoured the room as he turned over Ren's words, the challenge Ren posed as well as how best to deal with the current predicament (or as he called it, Ren's mess) as he sucked on his dummy. While trying to think of a solution that would be favourable to Miss Haruko, Koenma couldn't help but take a moment to think about just how _stressful_ his life was. Yes, he was aware that he was royalty and therefore was rather spoiled. He always got what he wanted when he wanted it, was waited on hand and foot and never had to lift his finger and do anything physically gruelling. However as King Enma's only son and heir, and therefore the Crown Prince of Reikai, his father had stressed upon Koenma the importance of becoming a strong, powerful, decisive and wise ruler.

It was known in certain circles of Reikai that the King and Queen Consort of Reikai had been estranged for many centuries and so another royal child was incredibly unlikely. So while King Enma's rule had never been questioned and was quite secure, it meant for Koenma that he _had_ to be "perfect" as the only prince in Reikai. He had to ensure that should he ever spend time with the other nobility in Reikai, his mannerisms and words had to be careful and perfect. Scandals and mistakes could not be afforded by Koenma because should he make any mistakes that were known to the apparitions that populated Reikai, then it would reflect badly upon King Enma's ability to raise his son.

A part of Koenma had always believed that had his parents stayed together, had a happy and love filled marriage; they would have probably had more children. Koenma would have had some sibling to play with, spend time with. Having sibling would probably ease the pressure of being _the_ prince a bit because he would be the prince of Reikai, just _a_ prince of Reikai. Or maybe if his mother didn't look at his father with a certain level of contempt at times and spent more time with him and his father, then maybe family meal times wouldn't be so quiet and uncomfortable. Or maybe if his father spent more time with him, wanted to spend more time with him (other than asking for Koenma to report about his job or how his studies were progressing) he would feel like he was alone and stressed in this job.

Despite these family issues were an issue and something that would possibly take years to fix, Koenma felt that they was not as headache inducing in comparison to his job. Yes his family issues should really be addressed, but really as he got older, his parents spent less time with one another, so any feelings of animosity between the King and Queen shown to servants and guests at the palace were now quite rare. Honestly going to work was a reprieve from all of that and Koenma had been honoured when his father offered him the position of Chief Administrator of Reikai. He really was. It made him feel less like a useless and spoiled fop who thought and knew nothing of the other realms he was to one day rule. But the feelings of honour and pride faded when the stress of the job had kicked in. Often Koenma felt that his father had done nothing to prepare him for this; having to make correct and impartial judgements for everyone who dies and trying to ensure peace between Reikai, Ningenkai and Makai, all while trying to hide the presence of both Reikai and Makai from humanity.

In the grand scheme of things, Koenma knew that feelings of stress and being overwhelmed was natural since he was still rather new to it all. Even after his failure with Sensui, the biggest and possibly worst blemish on his record, his job was still manageable. However, since chosing Yusuke as the new Reikai Tantei and being giving Ren's case, Koenma's stress levels went through the roof. Koenma couldn't afford another of his detectives or his team to go rogue. While Kuwabara and Yusuke would be left alone should they successfully disappear, Kurama and Hiei would be hunted down and killed and Koenma wouldn't be trusted to choose another Spirit Detective. It would be another failure, another blemish on his record. However should he fail to "bring Ren to heel" as his father put it, it could very well mean that he would no longer be Chief Administrator because he would have failed to anticipate Ren's actions, incapable of dealing with forces like Ren. It could call into question Koenma's ability to judge spirits and maintain Reikai.

King Enma had never made it a secret just how much of a danger he considered Ren to be by keeping him on ice, incarnated but couldn't be executed, but never really told anyone just _why_ Ren was kept on ice other than the fact that he was too dangerous to be released or executed. Knowing this and having the stress of his job and Ren's challenge of his authority made Koenma wonder, rather bitterly, if this case was a test from his father, to see if he truly was capable of the job. Part of Koenma felt as though his father didn't expect him to be capable of his job and Ren was sent as an example for that, a lesson from the King of Reikai.

Taking a deep breath and shoving aside his bitterness towards his father, Koenma scolded himself for thinking so much about it, telling himself to not show weakness in front of Hana Haruko and Ren. Despite telling himself to think solely of what to do and nothing else, Koenma could still feel everyone's eyes on him, waiting for his judgement of this case and Ren's felt the heaviest.

The weight of his knowing gaze made Koenma want to squirm in his seat. He hadn't believed Ren's earlier claim to Sousuke Haruko, that he could weigh and judge the worth of someone, of their soul just by looking at them. But now, feeling Ren's gaze, Koenma began to believe it. Koenma dared to glance at Ren and felt his body tense at Ren's penetrating stare. It was as if Ren was gauging his strength of will and leadership, weighing and calculating his worth and judging him. Koenma's hands tightened and he bit down on the inside of his check to concentrate on what _really_ mattered, how best to proceed with Hana Haruko's case?

As Koenma considered what he could do, he admitted to himself, in the comfort in his own mind, that there weren't many he could think of and of the options he _could_ think of, he didn't particularly find them to be good options. Koenma pursed his lips as he began to question his options, trying to find a way to possibly convince Hana that trusting Yusuke and the others was best for her. This was despite Yusuke and Kuwabara being rather brash and not being the best at understanding how best to act around girls without scaring them and Hiei being well…Hiei. While Koenma was left in an endless loop of questions and trying to make his options appear more _appealing_ to everyone, including himself, he thought he could hear Ren's voice in his head, taunting him and his possible decisions.

" _What will you do now?"_ 'Ren's' voice whispered. _'What can you do now?'_

'I have different options to choose from.' Koenma thought back curtly.

" _But are those options in Miss Hana's best interest?"_

'Of course.' Came Koenma's immediate thought. 'I wouldn't decide something that didn't take Miss Haruko's best interests into consideration.'

" _But is it really in Miss Hana's best interests, or have you convinced yourself that the best interests for Reikai, yourself and Miss Hana are one and the same?"_ 'Ren's' voice replied. _"Would you force your will, Reikai's will upon her when it has the potential to harm her?"_

'Of course not!' Koenma thought back hotly, offended that 'Ren' would think that he would do such a thing. 'I, no, Reikai would never do anything to needlessly harm innocents regardless of who or what they are!'

" _The Reikai_ _you_ _know doesn't appear to anyway."_

"What?" Koenma asked 'Ren' in confusion. 'What are you-'

" _But what would you do if you found a way to enforce Reikai's will without losing Miss Haruko's tenuous trust all while you let her choose what_ _she_ _thinks is best for her?"_ 'Ren's' voice asked Koenma halting his confusion.

" _You want her to trust you, trust Reikai don't you?" '_ Ren's' softly asked Koenma. His whispered words like a seductive hiss. Koenma had remembered his father's warning about Ren, that his words could sway a person with ease, lead a righteous person to sin. _"You want her to believe that Reikai is more than capable of protecting her, don't you?"_

Koenma twitched as he listened to 'Ren's' words, half-heartedly trying to ignore Ren as he voiced Koenma's wishes, what Koenma wanted to do.

" _You can_ _do all this you know."_ 'Ren' said to him. _"You can let Miss Haruka decide what she believes is best for her while you do what is_ _actually_ _best for her."_

Koenma was starting to become frustrated by Ren's taunting voice telling him what he already knew and then making him listen to thoughts that he didn't want to think about and now he was telling him that he _could_ do both to protect and help Hana Haruko all while _not_ actually telling him how he could do it.

"And how could I do that? What do you actually mean Ren?" Koenma asked aloud in frustration.

After such a long and slightly awkward silence in the office, Yusuke, Kuwabara, Bota and Hana had all been startled by Koenma's sudden and frustrated question. It was clear that Koenma wasn't answering Ren's earlier question, but they weren't quite sure just what Koenma was saying.

"Um…Ren hasn't said anything." Yusuke told Koenma a little uncomfortably. Yusuke, despite being aware that he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, was still quite aware of certain things, not a lot but his awareness did perk it's head up when he needed it to…most of the time. In this case Yusuke, despite his teasing was aware that a job with the title Chief Administrator for all of Reikai had to be stressful and annoying and would lead to Koenma not getting much time out of the office. Honestly Yusuke was worried that Koenma was starting to lose it.

"Are you alright Koenma sir?" Botan asked the prince in concern.

"Yes, I'm fine." Koenma replied reassuringly as he thought over Ren's words, and eying the Sacred Spirit suspiciously. Ren's expression hadn't changed that indiscernible look in his eyes, and the upturned corners of his lips.

Once Koenma ignored the fact that Ren may or may not have spoken to him in his mind, Koenma began to turn Ren's words over in his head, thinking about the logic bhind some of his words, the reasoning behind Ren's suggestion about what he could do. Koenma was aware that Ren could be trying to sabotage him and, to an extent, Reikai, but Koenma ignored that for the moment as he reasoned with himself. Koenma began wondering what if he did what Ren had implied/suggested. What if he did and it worked?

As Koenma began mumbling slightly around his dummy and thinking up a plan, Kurama watched Ren and Koenma carefully. Kurama had watched the scene unfold, scrutinising Ren's actions and the stress and tension in Koenma as it slowly dissipated. It was clear to Kurama, and he was sure that it was clear to the others, the difference in authority and power between Ren and Koenma and although Koenma appeared calmer now, more in control of the situation, it was obvious to Kurama just who of the two was the one who had the upper hand and authority in this situation.

Koenma had been and still was tense and appeared hesitant, unsure what he should do, didn't know what to do. This uncertainty and hesitance made Koenma appear to have less authority, power and influence than his position actually means he has.

Ren on the other hand had remained calm and collected and although Koenma was the one with the title and official position, just by using a few choice words, Ren was able to be in complete control of the situation. To an outsider, in fact to most, if not almost everyone in this room, it would appear that Ren had who exuded power and authority was challenging Koenma. But Kurama didn't believe that Ren was challenging Koenma's authority. While it did appear as a challenge on the surface, to Kurama, it looked more like Ren was trying to educate Koenma, nudging him towards the solution he wanted but couldn't think of on his own.

However this belief led to Kurama to the question: What does Ren gain from this?

Even _if_ Ren had just challenged Koenma, he would have gained nothing other than an opportunity to make an empty power play since Reikai was more than aware of what Ren was capable of and the dangers of him being free, as he was now, to do as he pleases. Seeing as Ren had nothing to gain, Kurama began to wonder just _what_ Ren was thinking and planning. Educating Koenma just didn't fit into the mental profile Kurama had made for Ren. Doing so would be out of character for him. Ren has demonstrated, if the case with the Saint Beasts and the Makai insects and the conditions he had set with Koenma, that unless there was something for him to gain or benefit from, Ren wouldn't lift a finger to help. Since Ren didn't and doesn't just help on a whim, especially not Reikai, why was Ren doing this? Just what exactly was he planning?

Everyone waited for Koenma to speak and tell them their next assignment and since Koenma was carefully mulling everything, his plan over and since half of the room (Botan, Yusuke, Kuwabara and Hiei) weren't the most patient people in the world (some more than others), Yusuke and Kuwabara started grumbling to each other and Botan about how long it was taking while Hiei silently huffed. Yusuke was just moaning at how it was wasting his precious free time and Kuwabara was adamantly saying that all of this was Ren's fault. Botan on the other hand was scolding the two of them, arguing about how Koenma's job was difficult and that decisions such as these actually take much longer than they think.

Hearing this, Yusuke just none committedly mumbled, "I guess. At least we've got a reason not to go to school now and Keiko isn't gonna nag at us for it."

"You got that right." Kuwabara mumbled in agreement as Koenma sat up a little straighter having finally thought of a suitable solution for the situation.

Looking at Hana, Koenma cleared his troat a little before speaking calmly, confidently, but also kindly.

"Miss Haruko," Koenma began carefully. "What do you want?"

"Oh…er…" Hana mumbled in a little confusion.

"What I mean is what would you like Reikai to do for you?" Koenma asked her, rephrasing his question.

Hana began nibbling on her bottom lip in thought, her brows furrowed as her hands played with the hem of her shirt.

"I don't know." Hana admitted after a few minutes. "I haven't really thought about it."

"That's alright." Koenma told her reassuringly. "Take as much time you need to think it over."

Hana nodded thankfully as Ren walked over and leaned against the wall near Hiei, having apparently grown bored of the situation. While he was leaning on the wall, Yusuke thought he saw the top of Ren's hood moved by itself, but was convinced that he was seeing things, until he saw Ren's hood move again by itself.

Seeing…something move under Ren's hood was far more…interesting, so Yusuke tapped (hit) Kuwabara's arm until he too was focused on the fascinating, also freaky sight of something moving on top of Ren's head and underneath his hood. Noticing that Yusuke and Kuwabara were staring intently at him, Ren looked at Yusuke and Kuwabara with a raised eyebrow, silently asking why they were staring at him. It wasn't until the…thing under Ren's head moved, so that a _very_ noticeable lump was protruding from Ren's head.

"What the hell is _that_?!" Yusuke and Kuwabara shouted, blurting out their surprise at the quick movement from the lump on Ren's head.

"What is what?" Ren sighed a little impatiently.

"What is that _thing_ on your head?!" Yusuke shouted even louder. Ren's eyes narrowed slightly as he reached into his head and gently pulled out Miffy-Chan and cradling her in the crook of her arm, stroking her soft white ears.

Seeing the cute and fluffy animal Botan squealed loudly and bounded over to get a better look at Miffy-Chan, startling the snowball shaped rabbit, making her huddle deeper into Ren's arms and stomach area for protection. Ren frowned at Botan for startling Miffy-Chan as he gently petted and comforted the quivering and whimpering rabbit in his arms.

"Do you have to go everywhere with that thing?" Yusuke asked, scoffing at Ren.

"Do you have to bring a team with you to help you do your job for you?" Ren retorted quickly, making Yusuke scowl at him.

Hana watched the exchange, and began to think about what Koenma said as well as just what she _knew_ about the Reikai Tantei. Even though Hana had met Ren first, she barely knew _any_ of them and although none of them had done anything to harm her (aside from Ren killing her brother and thus leaving her without someone to take care of her), Hana found Ren to be the one she could say she trusted the most because the rest of the Reikai Tantei scared her. Yusuke Urameshi, who she thought looked like a thug greaser, and his friend Kuwabara were loud and scary, not to mention the fact that they always seemed to be arguing with each other and everyone else as well. Botan, seemed nice enough, but she was, or at least she seemed to be to Hana, a bit too eager to be her friend. Part of Hana figured that Botan was just very friendly, but after living with her brother and meeting the people Sousuke had brought home, she was wary of overly friendly people. Kurama seemed nice, genuinely nice and didn't scare her, but the one standing near Ren, Hiei Hana recalled, scared her. He was too quiet and didn't seem very nice. Hana decided that Ren, after watching him gently care for the rabbit in his arms, and despite killing her big brother and his body guards, had been kind to her, had been considerate. Ren had been nice, seemed genuinely nice like Kurama, and he was honest, telling her and her brother why he was there, what he thought about himself (not that she believed that Ren was actually that bad of a person) and he made her feel safe, like nothing would be able to hurt her. It was a feeling that Hana hadn't felt in quite some time ever since her parents died.

Pulling herself away from these thought, Hana thought about what Koenma was asking her. It sounded like such a simple question. What did she want? When she had been trapped by her brother in the house (mansion) she had been able to answer it easily. She wanted to be free from her brother but now that she _was_ free from Sousuke and his tyranny, she didn't know what she wanted to do, what she should do. She was all alone now without anyone to care about or want her. Again she could feel the icy fear form in her abdomen, but she tried her best to push that feeling down and furiously wiped her teary eyes, biting her bottom lip, feeling thankful for the pain that helped her focus on Koenma's question.

Koenma had wanted some of his team to care and look after her while he tries to find her relatives, hadn't he? Ren had said that Reikai would look after her, and if he works for them, surely that would mean he trusts Reikai, right? If Ren trusts Reikai, then should she, could she trust Reikai? Part of her said that yes, she could because her saviour trusted them, but Hana pushed down that childish voice. No, Hana decided, she couldn't fully trust Reikai because how did she know if they would turn out like her brother had? The only one she could trust, if tentatively was Ren.

Again, Hana asked herself what she wanted. She wanted to feel safe, wanted someone to care about her. Ren made her feel safe and she sort of trusted him. She wanted him to protect her, at least until Koenma found her relatives anyway.

Looking up at Koenma and taking a deep calming breath, Hana's eyes flicked over to Ren before speaking.

"Um, Your Highness, I would like-I want one of the members of your detective team to act as my guardian while you look for my family." Hana told Koenma calmly, her previous emotions of fear bred from uncertainty had been washed away once she had made her decision and realised what she wanted.

"And who would you like to protect you? Or would you like me to assign you a protector?" Koenma asked Hana, a little surprised by Hana's maturity.

"I want Ren to protect me." Hana replied.

Hearing this, Koenma was both pleased and displeased by Hana's decision. On one hand if Ren agreed to this, then Ren would be taking (some) responsibility for what he had done. On the other hand, Koenma didn't trust Ren at all, and couldn't guarantee that Ren would actually accept the assignment; furthermore, he had hoped that Hana would choose Yusuke or, better yet, Kurama who Koenma knew for certain would not do anything to harm Hana, and would do everything in his power to protect her.

"Ren, this will be your next assignment, should you accept." Koenma said to Ren, his eyebrow twitching when Ren didn't even look up from petting his rabbit. "You will act as Hana Haruko's guardian, protector and companion until Reikai locates and contacts Miss Haruko's relatives and guardians. Will you accept this assignment?"

Ren slowly looked up at Koenms emotionlessly, apparently in disinterest as he considered the situation. Ren could always refuse and say no, and doing so would mean that he could go back to Genkai's so he could continue to read that tome. However if he did say no, then it would simply fall upon the rest of the Reikai Tantei to protect her, Kurama and Hiei appeared to be competent enough to do that, Yusuke and Kuwabara on the other hand…their competence outside of a fight still remained to be seen. Now that Ren thought about it, he had heard something of interest about the Haruko's and he could use his time acting as the 'guard dog' would mean more than enough time to do some digging. Plus agreeing would mean that Miss Haruko would trust Reikai, or at least trust Koenma and his judgement. Ren idly wondered if that would be enough to make him want to accept, what was essentially a babysitting job.

Seeing that Ren was taking so long (a few minutes) to consider the situation, Koenma couldn't help but sneer at him. _'What will you do now, Sacred Spirit?'_ Koenma sneered at Ren, feeling a slight malicious joy at seeing Ren at such a crossroads (in Koenma mind).

Kuwabara didn't think that Ren would even bother considering to accept the assignment/case, and was mostly sure that Ren wasn't going to accept. In comparison to Hiei and Kurama, not that Kuwabara knew either of the two personally, Hiei and Kurama was trusted by himself, Yusuke, Botan and Koenma. They may not like Hiei very much, and Kuwabra doubted that many people liked Hiei, but the fact was that Hiei and Kurama didn't set off his tickle feeling like Ren did. Ren seemed to have a weird aura about him that Kuwabara did not like. It felt like there was something lurking under Ren's skin, waiting to get out. Kuwabara wasn't sure what it was if it was good or evil, and wasn't sure if he even wanted to know.

After a few more moments of consideration, Ren turned to Hana, the corners of his lips upturned slightly as he formally bowed to Hana (Hiei and Kurama noted that Ren refused to show Hana his neck, so this bow wasn't a sign of submission, just a façade of formality).

"Miss Haruko, allow me to formally introduce myself as Ren, Sacred Spirit and the most recent addition to the Reikai Tantei." Ren said formally and courteously as he straightened up. "I will do my best to protect you during this time as your temporary guardian. Of course, I will need to inform my housemate and technical landlady, and ask for her permission to house you at her temple compound."

Haba hastily returned the bow with a small smile and a slight blush, saying that she hoped he would take care of her. Hana's smile growing as Ren introduced her to his Miffy-Chan, who looked up at Hana from the crook of Ren's elbow with one dark blue eye. The others looked on in shock and slight disbelief by Ren's decision. Kuwabara had been so sure that Ren wasn't going to accept, Hiei had been the same because he thought that such a task would be considered by Ren to be below his notice or care. Yusuke muttered about how Ren could turn up the charm when he wanted to, especially with that 'silver tongue' of his. Kurama's eye had narrowed slightly when he heard Ren introduce himself as a Master of Darkness, keeping his calm and not letting his thoughts show on his face.

Koenma blinked in surprise and cleared his throat before dismissing the three of them, including Miffy-Chan, telling Ren to watch over Hana. Just as the three of them turned to leave Botan suddenly had a moment of realisation that Hana wouldn't have any spare clothes to change into and it was highly unlikely that Genkai would have anything that would fit Hana. Nearly jumping on the spot, she loudly volunteered to go with Ren and Hana, saying that she would help Ren get Hana comfortable and situated in Genkai's compound, half running over to Ren and Hana when Koenma agreed with her.

Once the four of them had left Koenma's office, Koenma looked to the remaining members of the Reikai Tantei and beckoned them closer.

"The four of you have another case." Koenma announced much to the boys' surprise.

"What are you babbling about?" Hiei said curtly, glowering at Koenma in impatience and anger.

"I will only say this once, so pay attention." Koenma began seriously placed his his arms on his desk, leaning forward and holding his hands as he looked at his team. Hearing this, Yusuke and Kuwabara perked up, focusing on Koenma's words. "As you may already know, Reikai doesn't know the full specifics of Ren's job, other than the high possibility that it has something to do with the human underworld."

"Well, yeah we kinda figured since that Sousuke guy looked like some hotshot in some mafia." Yusuke quipped. "What about it?"

"Well, if he's workin' for guys like Sousuke, that makes him a bad guy, right? Just like he told Hana?" Kuwabara said, his eyes narrowed, his brows knitting together as he thought. "I mean, doesn't that just make him a hypocrite? He says that he's qualified to judge people and their souls, when he's no better than people like Sousuke."

"Anyway, can he even "see" souls when they're in a body and the person ain't dead?" Yusuke asked scratching his head. "Hey, Kurama can people actually do that 'cause if they can, that'd make 'em even weirder than Kuwabara."

Hearing Yusuke and Kuwabara's babble (valid and understandable questions), Hiei scoffed, looking to the side muttering about how Yusuke and Kuwabara were just children. Although, in Hiei's eyes (and in comparison to how many years they had lived) they really were children, naïve and foolish in their youth (not that Hiei's seen 100 years yet). Yusuke and Kuwabara bristled at Hiei's mutters ready to argue with the short demon, however fate, by the way of Kurama, intervened saying that whether Ren could ee souls or judge them did not matter at the moment. This seemed to appease them for now (they decided to ask again later, or find the answers themselves) and focused once more on Koenma.

"Now that you are listening, I will debrief you on your next case." Koenma began. "The four of you know first-hand, or have had a taste, of how…unpredictable Ren can be and paired with the knowledge, or suspicion that Ren is working for the human underworld, I need the four of you to watch Ren and if you need to, protect Hana Haruko _from_ Ren."

"From Ren?" Yusuke and Kuwabara exclaimed in surprise.

"Why would we need to do that?" Yusuke asked incredulously. "Ren doesn't look like the type to hit girls."

Kuwabara agreed with Yusuke on this. Despite his reservations towards Ren and whatever it was he stood for, Ren didn't strike him as a person who would just attack an innocent girl like Hana. Yeah, Hiei had said about how Ren had killed before, but the image of a crazed killer that Hiei had proposed (imagined in Kuwabara's mind anyway) didn't quite fit the person he met. That being said, he wouldn't be _that_ surprised if he did (he would still be surprised, not that he'd admit that to himself.).

Yusuke, despite not being able to envision Ren hitting a girl, let alone Hana, also wanted to see Ren in a fight. Preferably against himself, or Hiei or Kurama, or both. That sounded like a great idea to Yusuke, that and he wanted to ask how Ren was able to rip out a person's beating heart and rip off a giant demon's head. Yusuke had to admit that that was some Mortal Kombat finishing move shit right there.

Kurama pursed his lips as he thought over this case and could see that their case was Koenma's way of exerting some kind of attempt to control Ren. If Kurama was brutally honest (not that he wasn't always brutally honest about serious things like this) he doubted such a plan would work, and he was almost certain that their combined power would be incapable should they even be so deluded as to attempt to bring Ren to heel as if he were some mindless beast.

Hiei, like Kurama knew that such plans to "bring Ren to heel" would ultimately fail. Hiei understood that Ren, like Kurama acted and appeared to be "domesticated"; however Hiei also knew that underneath both their veneers of civility, polite curtesy, Ren and Kurama were still the same as they were once before when they were both demons, unsullied by human blood wild, cunning and violent. Although, Hiei would admit to himself that Kurama had been tamed by his human mother and so was not completely the same as he once was. Either way Hiei knew such plans were pointless, but he would play along (not that he or Kurama had much of a choice) if only to see how it would all play out.

All four members were silent, which was shocking considering who half of them were, and Koenma took their collective silence as acceptance of this case (not that they, sans Kuwabara had a choice in the matter.).


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

The next morning (or as Yusuke and Kuwabara called it, the crack of dawn) Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama were sat in a train carriage, on their way to Genkai's temple compound. Yusuke and Kuwabara were both nodding off, only to wake a few seconds later as the train swayed and rattled its way down the tracks. Kurama, on the other hand, sat with his legs crossed with his hands folded in his lap, looking as bright eyed and bushy tailed as usual.

"Where is Hiei anyway?" Kuwabara grumbled tiredly with a loud yawn. "Wasn't he meant to meet us at the train station? Trust him to skip when we need him."

"Actually, Hiei is already watching Ren for us at Genkai's. He offered to keep watch last night after we left Reikai." Kurama said to Kuwabara with a slight smile as Kuwabara blinked a little in surprise and just uttered a small "Oh" in response.

"If Hiei's still watching Ren, why'd we have to get up so damn early?" Yusuke complained as he slouched in his seat. "Even Keiko doesn't wake up this early for school."

"It isn't fair if we just let Hiei do all the work for this case." Kurama reasoned. "Besides, if you're both tired you can sleep and I'll wake you before we reach our stop."

Yusuke and Kuwabara gladly accepted Kurama's offer and almost instantly fell asleep, much to Kurama's amusement and slight amazement that they could fall asleep on command. Once the two were asleep Kurama could now sit and think in peace, linking his hands together as he compiled all the useful information he knew about Ren (which wasn't very much) so that if worst came to worst and they had to fight Ren, they would be able to do something in retaliation.

When the train almost reached their stop, Kurama leaned over to Yusuke and Kuwabara and shook them both awake, saying nothing but chuckling quietly as Yusuke mumbled incoherently about Keiko and Kuwabara hastily wiped away some drool. Stretching and standing up, three of them got off the train and prepared themselves for the long trek up the many steps up to Genkai's compound with Yusuke complaining all the way about her decision to live in the middle of no where. Once they actually made it to Genkai's doorway, Yusuke and Kuwabara had to stop to rest their legs for a moment and rearrange their clothes so that they could look presentable, preferring an image of effortless physical exertion because they refused to look weak or uncool in front of anyone.

Inside the dining room Hana (who was now wearing a blue dress Botan found for her to wear) and Genkai were finishing the breakfast Ren had cooked,whilst Ren sat with a cushion on the table with the tome he acquired from Sousuke's vault. Delicately turning the yellowed pages, Ren didn't even look up when the three entered the room preferring to drink his tea in silence.

"Good morning." Hana greeted them shyly with a small smile, pushing the last bits of rice around in her bowl looking at them from underneath her fringe. While the two out of the three members of the Reikai Tantei were a little miffed that they were ignored by Genkai and Ren, they were rather pleased to see that Hana was opening up a little and didn't look as scared and sad as she had yesterday.

"To what do we owe the pleasure?" Ren asked in his usual slow paced monotone, noticing the bags under Yusuke and Kuwabara's eyes and the look of exhaustion on their faces.

"What's it to you?" Yusuke snapped irritably, grouchy from his early start and lack of sleep.

"Well its early morning, you're wearing your school uniforms and this is in the opposite direction of the school you should currently be attending." Ren drawled easily as they continued to read. Yusuke spluttered, grasping for something to say in retort.

"Well, I'm Genkai's apprentice, aren't I? I'm allowed to visit the fossil whenever I want to!" Yusuke sniffed defensively. Genkai made a sound of derision at this statement.

"That's not what you said when you left." She scoffed as she put down her tea. "You were practically skipping down those steps singing about how you were 'finally free from hell' and that you'd never be caught dead in this place."

Kuwabara and Kurama both turned to look at Yusuke in disbelief, as if to ask what the hell was wrong with him to make him to react in such a way when training under Genkai was considered by many to be a once in a lifetime chance and hundreds would kill to be in his position.

"What?!" Yusuke shouted, folding his arms across his chest. "You'd do the same if you were tortured by some crazy old bitch who called it 'training'."

"It's called discipline and hard work, dimwit. If you dug the crap out of your ears and pulled your head out of your ass you might have actually learned more." Genkai half snarled at her apprentice with a glare. Ren observed (from the interaction and the previous interactions between Yusuke and Koenma) Yusuke, like many adolescents his age, had a certain disrespect and dislike for authority figures and from the apparent short attention span doesn't do well, academically speaking. However, despite his blatant disrespect shown towards Genkai, he did seem to respect the old psychic and regardless of whether he was a diligent student or not, he probably learned more from under Genkai (that he bothered to remember ) than he did from school.

"Shouldn't you be at school?" Hana asked curiously after checking the time, feeling a little jealous of their normal school routine. Since the death of her parents, her brother had forbidden her from going to school. Hana missed the feeling of normalcy, the familiar routine of going to school, seeing her friends and then going home to talk to her parents and brother about her day.

"Nah, it's all good." Kuwabara said, laughing it off with Yusuke. "We can skip a day or two."

"Kurama can, but you two dimwits would benefit from attending more than just a day or two." Genkai commented dryly, making Kurama hide a small smile. "At least I have the comfort that you treat your teachers with the same respect and diligence that you showed me."

"What do you mean Master Genkai?" Hana asked Genkai. Genkai was all too happy to explain, as she sipped her tea that Yusuke was, to date, the worst apprentice she has ever had the misfortune to teach.

"And yet," Ren said, turning a page of the tome and briefly looking up at everyone in the room and Genkai. "Yusuke has been the only student who you have deemed worthy to be your student and successor."

This comment made Genkai purse her thin and wrinkled lips together, as she looked at Ren with a deadpan expression, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with Ren's statement. Instead she finished off the last of her tea with a sigh and turned to look at Hana, silently commanding the young girl's attention as she did so.

"Since you'll be staying here for now there are some things you should know." Genkai explained to Hana. "You are free to visit the beach to the west of here at any point. The forest that surrounds temple is relatively safe; however I suggest that Ren be with you should you decide to go wandering around the area. The Dark Forest is off limits due to the creatures and apparitions that reside there. I also suggest that you stay away from Ren's room."

Hana nodded in understanding of the 'ground rules' of staying with her, but was a little confused by Genkai's suggestion about Ren's room. However as she thought about it, she _did_ understand in a way. Ren was (or appeared to be) a teenage boy and she was a girl, they weren't related in any way and they weren't in any kind of intimate relationship. It would be inappropriate if she was found in Ren's room. Besides, Ren needs and wants his own privacy.

Kurama, on the other hand furrowed his brows together slightly. He understood Genkai's warnings about the forest around this temple, especially the Dark Forest, since they were for Hana's own safety. However it struck Kurama as a little suspicious or odd that Genkai would specifically single out Ren's room when Hana didn't seem to be the kind of person to be snooping in through other people's belongings.

"Genkai, why is Ren's room in particular somewhere that Hana not enter?" Kurama asked Genkai while carefully watching for Ren's reaction, or if he would react at all.

"For Hana's own safety." Ren answered without a change in the tone of his voice or pace of speaking. Genkai nodded in agreement with Ren's words, which made Hana frown in slight confusion, wondering why not entering Ren's room would be for her own protection. Ren was protecting her; he wasn't going to hurt her!

"What do you mean for her safety?!" Yusuke shouted, immediately on the defensive, hands curled into firsts at his sides and ready to attack Ren should he make the wrong move. Kuwabara was the same, his right hand gathering reiki so that he could summon his spirit sword at a moment's notice.

"I like conducting experiments with different herbs, plants, some chemicals and other miscellaneous ingredients and other such things." Ren drawled calmly, not even the slightest bit threatened or concerned about the spirit energy Yusuke and Kuwabara were summoning, or Kurama's tense and calculating stare. "It would be best if people didn't o inside my room and start touching things and potentially making things go… _horribly_ wrong for them…and for the sake of my own privacy."

Ren's answer cleared up Hana's confusion, but Yusuke, Kuwabara and Kurama were all still wary and suspicious about Ren's intentions towards Hana. After speaking Ren looked up for a moment and blinked as he looked at the trio as if only just realising that Hiei was missing.

"Oh…that reminds me." Ren began slowly and blinking again. His blank expression changing as his lips curled into a knowing smirk. "You can tell Hiei to come in now since you three have come in. He really doesn't have to stay in the same tree watching the compound all night and day."

"O-of course." Kurama said recovering quickly from his surprise, discreetly nudging Yusuke and Kuwabara out of their matching expressions of surprise as Hiei, having heard the entire conversation entered through the window. Hiei had his customary scowl on his face, but the corners of his mouth had curled up slightly into something that looked like it resembled a smirk as Ren was beginning to somewhat live up to his expectations.

~Timeskip a few hours~

After an extensive tour of the compound which revealed rooms that Yusuke hadn't even known existed, everyone were sat in the living room watching T.V (or just flicking from one channel to another in an attempt to find something interesting to watch). Yusuke and Kuwabara, having become bored, and since Ren appeared to be engrossed with playing with Miffy – Chan, decided that now was the best time for everyone to share their thoughts.

"This is so stupid." Yusuke complained quietly with a scowl on his face. "We're not even doing anything!"

"Would you prefer Ren to be attacking the girl Detective?" Hiei retorted quickly with a scoff, making Yusuke shoot a quick glare his way.

"No. But this whole plan seems so damn stupid!" Yusuke hissed in frustration. "I mean look at him! All he's done all day is read his books and play with that stupid bunny of his!"

"Urameshi's kind of right, I mean he hasn't been actin' shifty or anythin'." Kuwabara mumbled in agreement. "But I guess him _not_ doing anything is kind of suspicious I guess. What do you think Kurama?"

Kurama hummed slightly in thought as he considered everything he and Reikai knew about Ren and along with his actions and words since meeting him. His fingers laced together as he thought.

"I believe that Ren is already aware of Koenma's plan and the assignment he has sent us on." Kurama murmured softly trying to make sure that Ren wouldn't be able to hear their conversation. "I believe that there is also the possibility that he had already planned for Koenma to send us on this mission."

"So you're saying that he already knows why we're even here?!" Yusuke cried out incredulously along with Kuwabara before being shushed harshly by Hiei.

"It is a possibility." Kurama said quietly. "And I doubt that Ren has planned or even intended to hurt Hana in the first place."

"Then why the hell are we even here?!" Yusuke ground out in aggravation.

"Or he's a really convincing actor." Kuwabara interjected suspiciously unwilling to trust Ren as far as he could spit.

"Regardless of what _we_ think Ren knows or has planned, this pointless task is a complete waste of our time." Hiei scoffed standing up and walking to a corner of the room to sit and brood (probably or whatever Hiei does in his spare time, like watch and ensure Yukina's safety from afar). Yusuke just groaned, ready to slam his head into the table or the concrete out of boredom. After hanging his head and drooping forward out of the mind numbing boredom Yusuke suddenly sat up straight and turned to Ren. Seeing that there wasn't anything to do Yusuke decided now was the best time for him to get some answers that he had wanted answered for a while (a day or so at the most).

"Oi, Ren!" Yusuke shouted eagerly hiding the fact that he was slowly dying on the inside from inactivity. "How did you rip out that guy's heart? And that demons head? I've only seen that kind of shit in movies, you know? Did you use some kind of special move or somethin'?"

Ren looked up at Yusuke with an amused smirk on his face.

"If you want to know and learn how to do such things, why don't you ask Genkai?" Ren said, speaking at his usual slow pace, but instead of his usual monotone, it was slightly coloured by a hint of amusement. "After all she _is_ your master and you her ever so _diligent_ apprentice."

Yusuke's eye twitched slightly at Ren's response and realised that Ren had just answered his questions with another question, effectively deflecting his question.

"If you don't wanna tell me, you can just say no." Yusuke ground out irritably. "Ya don't have ta go around in circle to say it."

The corner of Ren's mouth twitched upwards slightly before he blinked and his eyes quickly flitted to look outside and sighed inaudibly and standing up.

"Excuse me." Ren said quietly and placing Miffy – Chan on the floor next to Hana as he headed outside.

"Is everything alright?" Hana asked him looking away from the T.V and at Ren. Ren's eyes slif over to the Reikai Tantei who (Kuwabara, Hiei and Kurama) had sensed the youki headed towards the temple.

"Yes." Ren answered her easily, as if the demonic energy headed towards them was nothing to worry about or be bothered by. "There are just some unexpected guests that require my attention. It would be in your best interest Miss Hana if you stay inside with Genkai while I greet our guests."

After speaking Ren continued to swiftly walk outside while Genkai sat calmly with Hana, sipping her tea as if nothing was wrong (in her eyes, nothing _was_ wrong since Ren was going to deal with the problem.). The others, mostly out of habit than anything since they were always the ones to have to deal with such problems, stood up and began to head out after Ren (mostly) with the intention to help him face the demons (depending on who it was but again mostly to help). Kuwabara and Yusuke, being the heroes they are had stood up with the intention to help Ren, regardless of whether or not they could trust him (although Yusuke was also going with the intention of spectating). Hiei was heading out just to watch Ren fight and Kurama believed that the arrival of the demons was not a mere coincidence.

"Don't bother." Genkai told the four boys, knowing that they were planning on helping Ren. "You know that Ren is more than capable of dealing with the apparitions outside. You'd just get in the way. Besides Ren wouldn't bother if this wasn't something of importance."

"What do you mean?" Yusuke asked Genkai with a frown feeling insulted that she had said that _he_ and the others would just be in the way. Genkai put down her cup and sigh through her nose in exasperation.

"Why don't you use your heads for once and _try_ to think about the kind of person Ren is?" Genkai half snapped. "This falls within the parameters of the job given by Koenma, so regardless of the cause of the demons coming, Ren will consider the potential threat they pose to Hana as a matter of importance."

Genkai's words made the four pause for a moment, but sensing the demons getting closer to the temple, that they were practically on their doorstep, the four of them put Genkai's words out of their minds for now and left to see what kind of apparitions were outside and if Ren would need their help. Genkai let out a snort of exasperation at the four of them. Running outside they saw Ren standing by the stairs of the temple across from two apparitions. One was a giant grey skinned ogre with three small horns protruding from the crown of his forehead and large brown bulging eyes. In the Ogre giant brutish clawed hands sat a large and heavy spiked flail. The Ogre's hulking muscular form looked tense and its face looked like it was set in a constant scowl, its harsh panting showcased by the swaying of the thick gold septum piercing. Along with the large, sharp and yellowed fangs that jutted out from its wide mouth, the Ogre looked like some kind of nightmarish beast, especially with the fur loincloth that hung about its hips with a dangling belt made of the skulls of various creatures. The other apparition had a humanoid form, with ginger hair and hazel eyes. Were it not for the incredibly long and impractical looking sword he was carrying, he could have been mistaken for a normal human. Both apparitions looked none too pleased to be greeted by the short Sacred Spirit turned human, especially the Ogre who looked like it was itching to grab Ren with its hands and swallow him whole.

"Who are you?" The Ginger demons asked in mock politeness, gloved hand on the hilt of his long and impractical sword that was somehow strapped to his back.

"I am just a human who lives here." Ren answered in his slow and monotone drawl. Ren looked at both apparitions standing before him and tilted his head to the side slightly, as the corners of his mouth curled upwards slightly. "Perhaps the two of you are here to…visit? To see Master Genkai about your need to overcompensate for…certain…things?"

The two apparitions growled loudly and angrily, drawing their weapons.

"Insolent human brat!" The Ogre shouted. "Are you too stunned by our power to realise that you stand before your executioners?!"

"Oh? No, no." Ren said slowly a hint of amusement in his voice as the apparitions flared their youki in an attempt at intimidation. Ren looked on; expression unchanged despite the demons attempts to intimidate him.

"Have we scared you senseless boy?" The ginger demon sneered down at Ren with an arrogant smirk on his face. Ren didn't respond and the demons took this silence as acquiescence and fear. "If you hand over the girl, we _might_ let you live."

"Oh?" Ren asked, seemingly amused by the demons displays and actions. When he spoke it was the same calm drawl with the barest hint of amusement. "Girl? You'll need to be more…specific about whom you are referring to."

The group looked on surprised at the two demons patience with Ren. They assumed it was patience since Ren wasn't exactly being cooperative. It struck them that it was Ren's nature to be difficult and while it was something that could be considered somewhat helpful in situations like these, it would be really annoying and would get old _fast_ should they actually work with him and need information from him.

"You know who we want boy, just hand the girl over and no one gets hurt!" The Ogre shouted brandishing his weapon, his patience having grown thin from getting nowhere after speaking to the insolent human brat that was too stupid to realise that he was outnumbered and outclassed by two demons.

"Is that so?" Ren asked in his slow drawl, looking to the side as he spoke. "Ah, who knows if I do or not?"

After Ren said this the Ogre's patience with Ren (or what little patience he had to begin with which Ren had been determined to test) snapped as the Ogre rushed forward (as quickly as the bumbling beast could rush) wildly swinging his flail with its long chain at Ren with a battle cry.

"You brought this on yourself, human!" The Ogre cried as he swung the flail at Ren, who easily stepped to the side before jumping out of the way of the ginger demons blade.

As Ren effortless stepped out of harm's way, moving with practised ease as the two demons haphazardly attacked him, it became clear to Hiei and Kurama that the two apparitions weren't used to fighting in a team. The lack of awareness of their partner's position and fighting style made them a clumsy pair and easy prey for Ren. Taking advantage of their lack of coordination Ren moved to carefully attract the blind swings of the Ogre until the spiked flail smashed into the ginger demons sword and knocked him to the side. The Ogre, seeing his comrade fall and the human boy stand unharmed and with the same expression on his face, the Ogre became enraged, charging the boy who darted forward just as the Ogre raised his flail and unsheathed a tantō from his hoodie. Jumping up as the Ogre lunged forward to swing his flail; Ren stabbed his short blade deep into the Ogre's throat before slashing the Ogre's windpipe and swiftly moving back to avoid the spray of warm blood that followed. Walking towards the ginger demon, and letting the Ogre bleed out of the steps of the temple, Ren flicked his blade, getting most of the blood off and kicked aside the remains of the ginger demons sword.

Ren walked over to the ginger demon's side and crouched down, holding his tantō to the surviving demon's throat. Bringing up his other hand, Ren focused some of his spirit energy into the tip of his middle and index fingers and gently tapped the ginger demons forehead, forcing him to wake up with a jolt. The ginger demon's eyes fluttered open and became wide as shock and panic washed over him, his adams apple bobbling as he swallowed, feeling the human boy's blade dig in ever so slightly into his neck.

"Tell me who sent you." Ren commanded the demon, eyes cold, face impassive and completely devoid of emotion.

"I'll never tell you." The demon hissed, baring his fangs at the boy, forcing his eyes to stay locked on the boy's mismatched ones, and not to stray over to his dying comrade.

"Are you saying that out of loyalty to _them_ or for fear of your death should you fail to bring her to _them_?" Ren asked the demon with a sight smirk. The demons glared hatefully at Ren, who just smiled in return. "I commend you for your loyalty, work ethic and tenacity. But the fact is, you're just a man waiting for death to find you."

Ren leaned closer to the ginger demon and as he opened his mouth to speak, his voice was lower, softer and it's timbre was hypnotic as Ren once again asked for the identity of the one who sent them. As the demon listened to Ren, his eyelids began to droop and his throat bobbed as he swallowed, mouth suddenly dry, mind fogged by Ren's words. The demon opened and closed his mouth as he tried to form the words that would answer Ren's questions, and then, after pushing through the thick fog in his mind for the answer, the demon whispered a name. After the demon spoke, Ren slit the demon's throat and stood up, watching impassively as the demon chocked on his own blood, making squelching, gurgling noises as he died, fighting to cling on to life.

As Ren turned around and walked over to the Reikai Tantei his eyes swept over their face and forms taking in their reactions to what he had done. Kuwabara and Yusuke were filled with shock and disgust for Ren's actions, both of them shouting their disgust and anger at Ren. Kurama and Hiei remained silent, whether in understanding or disapproval, Yusuke and Kuwabara didn't know. What they _did_ know was that the ginger demon, regardless of the fact that he was sent here to kidnap Hana and tried to kill Ren, gave Ren information (or atleast they think he did since only Ren could hear what the ginger demon had said just before Ren slit his throat) and Ren could have simply just let the guy go. He didn't have to needlessly kill him.

Ren pulled out a rag to clean his blade as he stepped through the door, only to be stopped by Yusuke and Kuwabara with looks of anger on their faces.

"What the hell was that?" Yusuke asked angrily through gritted teeth. "Why'd you kill him after he gave you what you wanted?"

"Urameshi's right." Kuwabra growled. "You could've just let him go."

"If you wanted me to do that, why didn't you stop me?" Ren asked them calmly in the same calm drawl with a slightly raised eyebrow. "You saw that I had my blade to his throat, showing my intention to kill him. If you wanted to stop me, why didn't you fire your spirit gun to push me aside and stop me from killing him? I'm sure Koenma would approve of your actions if you explain how it would mean that you kept Miss Hana safe from me."

Yusuke and Kuwabara were surprised by Ren's words and stunned into silence as they opened and closed their mouths trying to explain why they hadn't done a single thing to stop Ren. This led to the two of them wondering _why hadn't_ they done something to stop Ren? He was right, they'd seen him put his knife to the demon's throat, and could see that Ren was going to kill him. So why didn't they do anything? It wasn't like they wanted Ren to kill him, but they just stood there watching like it was some kind of sick show.

"Besides," Ren said, drawing Yusuke and Kuwabara out of their musings. "Haven't the two of you done something similar when you stormed Torukune's mansion? Only the two of you were in the demons positions. Sure the two of you can see the hypocrisy of your anger in this situation? Had I let them live, they would have continued to try and take Miss Hana. I am doing what has been asked of me, just like the four of you. My actions fall within the parameters of my job as Miss Hana's protector."

Yusuke and Kuwabara were left silent as they thought about what Ren said as Ren walked past them and inside the temple.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

It had been a few days since Ren had killed the two demons while protecting Hana, and aside from the attack on the first day, everything (in comparison) had been calm and incident free. Hana spent her days down by the beach, taking walks in the tamer parts of the forest with Ren and the others and going to the closest shopping centres to the temple. The Reikai Tantei found that Ren did his job well and without acting or doing anything that would cause suspicion or alarm (which strangely enough caused suspicion within the Reikai Tantei because they couldn't help but think that Ren had some kind of ulterior motive.). Overall, Hana was happy to be free to go outside again and do what she wanted (even though she couldn't go to school since she hadn't enrolled.)

Hiei and Ren appeared to get along well since they had some things in common. Not that they actually had many conversations with one another, they just sort of sat in silence and somehow, somehow, that translated and amounted to them communicating. Hiei was disappointed by the "real" Ren, but he also knew that the Ren he "knew" was just the one he had heard about as a child, an idealised version of him. Hiei only "knew" the Ren as a warrior, not as a person outside of the battlefield because the only Ren Makai knew and cared about was the warrior Ren. While Hiei _did_ respect Ren, he was unsure what to make of the complete and "whole" Ren. He regarded Ren with a mixture of childish disappointment, which he vehemently pushed away, respect for Ren's fighting prowess but at the same time, Hiei felt that there was still something missing from this "whole" version of Ren, something that was being held back. Hiei didn't doubt that that something was due to Ren being in human form and once/if Ren returned to his true form, that feeling would disappear.

Kurama and Ren (to an outsider or to Yusuke and Kuwabara) seemed to get along well enough. However to those who were a tad more perceptive, such as Genkai and Hiei, they could see that Rena and Kurama didn't exactly get along _that_ well. Any kind of conversation between the two seemed to be some kind of verbal chess match with Ren saying something that alluded to him knowing important and Kurama subtly trying probe for more information.

Kuwabara didn't trust or like Ren since he didn't appear to have any kind of moral compass and was a criminal who knew exactly how to prevent people from bringing him to justice. In short, Ren was, in Kuwabara's eyes, a worse version of Hiei. At least with Hiei, they had some kind of fighting bond with him. Ren just seemed distant, constantly mocking everyone around him. Therefore Kuwabara just tended to ignore Ren as much as possible and didn't do anything that would encourage some kind of conversation with him.

Yusuke sort of like Ren and so they kind of got along. Ren was a strong fighter and liked video games; this was enough to make Yusuke kind of like him. However at the same time, Ren was a criminal (who hadn't done anything to hurt them in any way) and made him question whether he really was the good guy when he worked for Koenma. When he had asked the others this, they had all (even Hiei) said yes, he and Kuwabara had been the good guys in the situation (saving Yukina and defeating the Saint Beasts), Ren was simply good at using words to manipulate people, making them question what they know and their beliefs. They (mostly Kurama and Kuwabara) even advised against trusting Ren since they didn't know enough about him or had any kind of bond to build that trust on. But Yusuke still felt that Ren, given the opportunity, could be trusted. It was just a matter of spending more time and fighting beside him before any of them could truly say whether or not they could and should trust him.

It was late afternoon when Botan flew down on her oar to an outside training ground within the compound, with a smile on her face and her curled sky blue hair tousled by the wind.

"Hello everyone!" Botan greeted cheerily, landing gracefully with practised ease, standing and gently brushing out the creases in her pink kimono.

"Botan? Wat are you doing here? Koenma need some help to get his diaper changed or somethin'?" Yusuke asked her. Botan frowned slightly Yusuke's words bit smiled again as she turned to look at Hana.

"I take it that you have come with an update on this case?" Ren asked Botan politely (or as politely he could sound with his lazy drawl and blank expression on his face that always had a hint of an amused smirk on his lips.).

"Bingo!" Botan chirped with a lilting laugh as she turned to Hana. "Koenma sent me to say that he's found your grandparents!"

"My…grandparents?" Hana asked Botan as she racked her brain for any recollection of her grandparents.

"That's right. According to Koenma your grandparents were the only other living relatives you had left since your mother had no siblings and neither did your father." Botan explained as she sat next to Hana. Hana nodded her head as she thought about which grandparents Botan was referring to. She supposed that Botan could be referring to her paternal grandparents who lived in Makai (according to her father when he was alive) but she had never met them and she wasn't sure they even knew about her existence. On the other hand, thought Hana, she could be talking about my grandparents on my mother's side, but they live all the way in Nagasaki and I haven't seen or heard from them in a while. Suddenly Hana couldn't help the errant fear that filled her when she thought of the possibility that her maternal grandparents had died but she didn't know about it. Would Koenma send her to live with two people she didn't even know in a whole different world?

"Hana, are you alright?" Botan asked her, noticing the look of fear on Hana's face.

"Did-did Koenma say which grandparents he found?" Hana asked after swallowing thickly as she tried to calm her wild heartbeat.

"Unfortunately, no." Botan replied with a slight frown. "But they are human, if that makes you feel any better?"

Botan smiled weakly at Hana who smiled back, but still looked a little hesitant to follow Botan. Seeing her hesitation, Ren walked over to Hana and silently laid a comforting hand on her shoulder. Turning to look at him, and even though his face was impassive as ever, she felt like he was reassuring her that everything was going to be alright. Hana smiled at Ren and walked over to Botan, signalling that she was ready to go with her, before turning around to look at Genkai.

"Master Genkai, I just want to thank you for letting me stay here." Hana said to Genkai with a bow of respect and gratitude. Genkai looked a little surprised that Hana thanked her since young people generally seemed rather rude nowadays, but smiled back at Hana.

""It wasn't a problem. Besides it's not like I could let you go and be homeless for the last few days." Genkai replied waving off Hana's thank you with a smile. "Now go, you want to see your grandparents again, don't you?"

~Mini Time Skip to Koenma's Office in Reikai~

Hana's maternal grandparents were an elderly, kindly looking couple who wore matching cardigans over their clothes and stood together holding their hands as they watched Hana and the members of the Reikai Tantei step into Koenma's office. Hana's grandfather was an average sized man who appeared to be balding, but still had some white hair behind both ears and the back of his head. The grandmother was a rather plump old lady that smiled a lot and pushed her glasses up her nose every so often with a full head of curly white hair. Their smiles widened as they saw Hana, who ran over to them with all three of them embracing a little tearfully. After embracing for a few minutes the grandparents pulled back so they could get a better look at Hana.

"You've grown so much since we last saw you!" Hana's grandmother cooed.

"Hana, your grandmother and I are so sorry for not asking Sousuke about how you were more, for believing all those lies he told us about your parent's deaths and where you were." Hana's grandfather said earnestly, holding Hana at arm's length and looking at his granddaughter seriously.

"Grandpa…" Hanna mumbled sniffling a little as her grandparents spoke.

"Your grandfather's right Hana." Hana's grandmother said, her voice full of sorrow and regret "We should have done more, tried to visit more, fought for custody over you when my daughter and son in law passed. Dear, we don't expect you to forgive us for letting Sousuke do all those horrible things to you, but all we ask is that you give us a chance to do what we should have done before and take care of you."

Hana looked up at her grandparents looks of shame and sadness and moved forward to hug them both. Her hands clinging to her grandparent's woollen cardigans as she spoke, her voice muffled by her grandparent's bodies.

"There's nothing to forgive. It wasn't your fault, none of it is." Hana said as she held on to her grandparents, for a moment she forgot that she was in a room full of people and it was like she was at her grandparent's house by the sea. "You didn't make big brother do those things. You didn't know what he was planning or what he was going to do."

Hana leaned back to look up at her grandparents with a bright and happy smile.

"Besides Ren and his friends found me before Sousuke did anything." Hana told her grandparents reassuringly, releasing the hug and stepping back, gesturing to the Reikai Tantei.

"Ah, yes, Koenma told us about this Ren person." Hana's grandfather said looking over the Reikai Tantei and trying to figure which one of the group was Ren before Hana stepped over to Ren's side, showing her grandparents who Ren was.

"Ah yes," Hana's grandmother said with a grateful smile, shuffling over to Ren. "Thank you for taking care of Hana, and I'm sorry that you were forced to shoulder the burden of ending Sousuke's life."

Ren blinked at Hana's grandmother, struck by this family's ability for forgiving others and their thoughtful actions to a veritable stranger. He wondered idly if this was something that was passed down through genetics or if it was something that the grandparents had passed down to Hana's mother and then from Hana's mother to Hana herself. Either way, it was something that was rarely seen with anyone, apparition or human.

"Thank you for your kind word ma'am," Ren said respectfully with the slight bob of his head. Ren's eyes narrowed slightly as he realised that Koenma had changed the situation of his business with Sousuke, twisting and altering the situation as to not _upset_ the grandparents and not put Reikai in a bad light, since he _was_ as part of the Reikai Tantei, representing Reikai and Koenma. _'Of course he doesn't want to tarnish his image in front of humans.'_ Thought Ren before continuing to speak. "But your worry is misplaced. I do not consider the death, the murder of your grandson to be a burden because his life was exchanged for Miss Hana's life and freedom. And if it is to be a burden, it is mine to bear and worry about. Your thoughts should be of your health, your husband and grandchild's wellbeing."

Hana's grandparents blinked at Ren's words, unsure what to say in response, which Koenma took advantage of and cleared his throat loudly, bring everyone's attention to himself.

"Ah, Miss Haruko," Koenma said sitting up straight and looking over to the small family of three. "If you agree to live with your maternal grandparents with them as your legal guardians, you and your grandparents will need to fill out the appropriate documents."

"Yes, I want to live with Grandma and Grandpa." Hana said happily with the biggest smile on her face that anyone had seen. Koenma smiled gently at the sight of Hana and her grandparents all sharing happy smiles.

"And since we already know that your grandparents are more than willing to have you live with them, if you all follow my assistant Ayame, she'll take you to one of our lawyers who'll help guide you through the required paperwork." Koenma said gesturing to a pale and tall woman with matching black hair and eyes wearing a sombre black kimono who bowed in greeting.

"This way please." Ayame said softly, gesturing towards the door.

Before following Ayame out, Hana quickly stuffed her hand into her pocket and walked over to Ren, pulling out a small purple gift box with a red ribbon on top.

"I just wanted to thank you for saving me from my brother, and protecting me." Hana said with a shy smile and a small blush on her face as she held the gift box out for Ren to accept. "I know you don't think that you're a good person, but I don't believe that, I think you are and that you're trying to be one. So I wanted to give this to you as a thank you and to remind you that you can be a good person, and to keep trying to be one."

"You didn't have to get me a gift." Ren said simply looking at the gift and then at Hana, seemingly a little stunned by her gesture of thanks.

"I know, but I wanted to repay you for everything you've done. I know to you helping me might not seem like a lot, but I'll always remember how you helped me." Hana said with a soft smile. Looking at Hana's smile and graciously accepted the gift.

"Thank you Miss Hana." Ren said lowly and respectfully. Opening the gift he found it to be a jade meditation bracelet.

"I hope it'll help you one day in the future." Hana said hopefully with a small smile.

"I'm sure it will." Ren said returning the small smile.

Once Hana and her grandparents left with Ayame, Ren turned around to face Koenma and pulled a full written report out of his hoodie pocket and placed it on Koenma's desk.

"My report about the assignment." Ren said, his previous smile gone as he stared at Koenma who was pleasantly surprised by Ren's efforts.

"Why thank you Ren," Koenma said opening the paper folder and skimming over the paperwork inside. "This will actually save me a lot of time documenting this case."

"Yes, I'm sure it will." Ren said as his lips stretched into his smile that always seemed to be teetering on the edge of confidence and arrogance. "I've also included an estimate for my payment. I'll let you choose how you send it. Don't worry; I've left plenty of space for you to add your boys' comments about my work."

Koenma pursed his lips and nodded at Ren in agreement, and Ren bowed mockingly at him before turning and walking out of his office. Moments after Ren left, Koenma face morphed into one of frustration having previously believed to have deceived Ren, only to now realised that Ren had played, had been playing him this entire time. Lips twitching around his dummy in frustration Koenma beckoned the rest of the Reikai Tantei closer to his desk and asked them if Ren had done or said anything that struck them as suspicious.

"You mean other than those demons he killed on day one?" Yusuke asked Koenma who tilted his head a little as he spoke.

"I can assure you now that I was watching the entire time. I want to know if there was anything that _you_ thought was suspicious." Koenma said looking a little troubled.

"Well those two demons that came after Hana was kind of suspicious, I mean how did they know to go and find her at Genkai's?" Kuwabara said scratching his chin in thought. "And other than killin' them, he didn't do anythin' out of the ordinary and that was just kind of…weird I guess."

Koenma nodded along to Kuwabara's words making note of everything.

"Other than though, he didn't really do anything." Yusuke added scratching the back of his head.

"Oh, come on now!" Botan said in slight protest. "We should at least give him some credit for doing a good job! Koenma, you saw it yourself, Ren stayed by Hana's side and protected her like you told him to and he wasn't being overbearing and let her have her own space. I thought he was a thoughtful and kind protector, letting her go out and have alone time when she wanted it, all while she was waiting for us to find her grandparents. Surely it's unfair of us to keep thinking of him to be a suspicious character?"

"Botan, everything that guy does is suspicious!" Kuwabara interjected passionately (just like everything else he does in life except studying unless the time calls for it). "He told her to stay away from his, 'cause he says he's a bad person, right? But when she wanted him to protect her, he shouldn't have said no, right? If he was really serious about lookin' out for her he would've said no."

"What you say is true Botan and has been taken into account." Koenma said, nodding and conceding that she had a valid point and gesturing for Kuwabara to calm down, worried about how red Kuwabara's face was getting from his shouting. "Kuwabara, your concerns are not yours alone but the fact remains that Ren has conducted himself in a professional manner. In addition to this, Ren had acted in a way which he felt best and with a full understanding of the consequences of his actions. Yes, acceptance of this case would mean potentially contradicting what he said earlier to Hana. But at the same time had he refused, he would have removed the one person Hana felt some semblance of safety trust. And while it may be unfair for us to still regard him with suspicion he is still considered to be a convicted criminal and we cannot simply assume his innocence."

Koenma let his words sink in as everyone silently thought over his words.

"But this matter has resolved, has it not?" Kurama asked Koenma who still looked troubled, which worried him.

"Well, yes it has." Koenma answered him, mumbling slightly.

"If it's been resolved then why haven't you let us leave?" Hiei asked glaring at Koenma with less malice than usual. "If this matter is resolved why are you so hesitant to end it?"

"Had _I_ been the one to find Hana's grandparents then it would be." Koenma said sounding a little miserable and frustrated by the situation. "The fact is _I_ _didn't find_ Hana's grandparents."

"Wait a second," Yusuke said with a slight frown of confusion. "If you didn't find Hana's grandparents, who did? I mean Hana recognised 'em, so they had to be the real thing, right?"

"Well, yes they really were Hana's grandparents, but I, Reikai didn't locate them." Koenma said seriously, pushing aside his frustration so that they could concentrate on what was really important at the moment.

"If you didn't, who did?" Kuwabara asked in confusion, pointing at Koenma a little dumbly as Hiei rolled his eyes at Kuwabara's idiocy (despite not really knowing who did either). Koenma reached into a drawer of his desk and pulled out two notes, both written in the same neat handwriting. The first note that Koenma showed the group said:

" _Send another group like that and they'll be returning in body bags. Leave me alone."_

The second note simply had the names of both Hana Haruko's grandparents, along with their address and contact details.

"Do these notes seem familiar to you?" Koenma asked them as he watched the cogs turn in the heads of the Reikai Tantei as each realised, at their own pace, the sender of the notes.

"Wait, if Ren sent these why'd he? How'd he? This doesn't make any sense!" Kuwabara exclaimed loudly as he felt a headache coming on as he tried to figure out Ren's thought process and reason for doing these things.

"Why does Ren do anything?" Koenma asked rhetorically before continuing. "To further his own ends and his own gain, I assume or something along those lines."

"If Ren considers finding Hana's grandparents within the parameters of his job as Hana's protector, then it would be understandable." Kurama reasoned thoughtfully as he cupped his chin and analysed the two notes and the possible reasons behind them. It was clear the tones of the two notes were very different, with the first being a threat while the other was just to give information. Kurama supposed that since the second note wasn't signed, then Ren didn't want Reikai to know that it was he who wrote and sent the note. But if that was the case, then why did he write the note himself? Why didn't he just print out the information, thus removing the possibility of using his handwriting to identify him? Perhaps it was Ren's way of giving Reikai some kind of peace offering? But this wouldn't fit in with his profile. Ren was someone who rebelled and waged war against King Enma and Reikai, so why would he suddenly let Reikai and Koenma take all the credit? In fact a lot of what Hana's grandparent's said to Ren didn't reflect the actual events of Ren's job.

"But it doesn't!" Kuwabara shouted holding his head as he tried to wrap his head around the situation. "Nothing he does makes any sense!"

Hiei scoffed at Kuwabara despite feeling that Kuwabara had a point…to an extent. It didn't make any sense for Ren to do such a thing to help Reikai. _Unless_ , thought Hiei, _it has something to do with that business he had with the girl's brother._ Hiei's eyes narrowed slightly as he thought this. Hiei knew that Koenma and the humans probably wouldn't realise this just yet, but Kurama would, if he hadn't already.

"Koenma." Kurama said as he looked seriously at Koenma who looked up at Kurama. "What exactly did you tell Hana's grandparents? When they spoke to Ren, they made Sousuke's death sound less like a murder in cold blood, but collateral damage of some kind."

Koenma shifted in his seat, feeling a little uncomfortable as he thought of a way to explain what he told Hana's grandparents in such a way as to not anger Yusuke and Kuwabara or even worse, Hiei and Kurama. It wasn't like he could just say that he lied and made Ren to be some kind of morally troubled hero that was working for Reikai who was forced to end Sousuke life in the name of righteous justice.

"I…" Koenma said slowly as he tried to explain his way out of this situation, wishing that he had Ren's ability to talk his way out of sticky situations with that damned silver tongue of his. "I told Hana's grandparents the next best alternative. I couldn't simply tell them that their grandson was a criminal who used money that came from illegally trafficking drugs, weapons, apparitions and humans to bribe corrupt members of the government and police force who had crossed paths with the wrong person who sent the hit man Ren to end his life! They wouldn't be able to live with themselves knowing that their grandson had committed such horrific crimes. Nor would they trust us if I then told them that I, Reikai, entrusted the safety of their only granddaughter to the same assassin who murdered their grandson."

"So what _did_ you tell them?" Hiei asked Koenma flatly.

"I told Hana's grandparents that Reikai to investigate the Haruko estate because we believed that there had been reports of people going missing. Once Ren had entered the estate he had found Sousuke, who had been possessed a demon. Ren had been forced to kill their grandson and the demon possessing him in order to save the kidnapped humans, Hana and Sousuke himself."

"So you lied and pinned the blame on a demon instead?" Hiei hissed with a glare.

"I did it to preserve their memory of their grandson!" Koenma shouted angrily. "I lied so they could bury their grandson's corpse without feeling shame upon their family, so that they will remember Sousuke as he was before he became a criminal, so that his family wouldn't just brand him a criminal, never to be thought or spoken of again!"

Everyone had been stunned by Koenma's words. Until now, they never really thought about what Koenma had to say or do after they finished their work, never dwelled upon the aftermath that Koenma had to deal with on a daily basis. Until now their cases had just been about themselves, whatever their objective was (usually saving someone or the Earth) but at this moment in time they thought outside of themselves to consider the difficulties that came with ruling. For now, whatever confusion Ren's actions had caused had been swept away as they thought and imagined how much Koenma must have hated lying to that elderly couple and making Ren out to be some kind of hero. Seeing that the four of them were busy in their own thoughts (well, Kurama, Yusuke and Kuwabara were) Koenma dismissed them tiredly, wanting to relax and put this case behind him for the rest of the day.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

It was early evening and the sun was setting as Ren sat at a table in a private room of an Ochaya. He sat with his eyes closed and appeared to be completely at peace, as if a natural calm had swept over him, removing him of his usual expressions of boredom, smiles that were a mixture of almost arrogant and mocking or a face devoid of all emotions. This moment of peace was disrupted and Ren returned to his usual state of boredom as the door slid open to reveal a brunette woman wearing a pretty lilac kimono and holding a tray with a tea set. The woman smiled down at Ren as she slid the door closed behind her, walking forward with some grace as she sat down next to Ren, placing the tea pot and utensils on the table and began to prepare the tea.

Ren spared the woman a glance for a second, noticing just how _close_ she sat next to him before catching her eye and returning his gaze to the painted screen walls across from him. The woman's painted lips, after noticing Ren look at her and catching his eye for the briefest second, widened into a coy smile. Biting her lip a little, she leaned over to the side as she placed Ren's cup in front of him and 'accidentally' leaned into him.

"I'm sorry." The woman said a little breathily, her lashes fluttering a little as she looked at Ren as she moved back slightly, trying to see what his reaction would be. Ren dismissed the woman's actions, and to her, he appeared not to have noticed it. Instead of looking at the woman, Ren moved his eyes to watch her hands as she prepared the tea.

Feeling a little put out by Ren's lacklustre reaction to her 'accident', the woman gently cleared her throat and smiled as she decided to try and have a conversation with him.

"You know," She says, her voice gentle, soft and a little husky. "It's quite rare for us to have young guests at such a late hour, or even here at all. At least outside of the holiday seasons and without their families. "

Ren remained completely still and unresponsive as he was only half listening to what she was saying, just wishing for her to finish preparing tea and leave so he could have some moments of peace. Or even better if she just left the tea for him to prepare without bothering him.

Seeing that Ren wasn't going to say anything she continued her one sided conversation.

"And it's even rarer for one such as yourself requesting a private room for yourself at this late hour."

At this, Ren turned his head slightly so that he was partially facing her, showing that he was listening and now interested in what she had to say. He raised an eyebrow, silently asking what she meant and for her to elaborate. Feeling proud that she had finally caught his attention, the woman laughed lightly as she fluttered her eye lashes a little as she spoke.

"What I meant is that most customers who visit during these hours usually don't come for time _alone_ , nor do they _arrive_ alone. And if they do arrive alone, they're never alone for very long." The woman explained. "It's even rarer that they ask for off the menu tea and a private room." 

"I…see…" Ren hummed sounding bored and aloof as he turned back to looking at the screen walls. The woman felt a little insulted that this boy would prefer staring at the same screen walls than to speak with her, but also feared that she was losing attention he had had on her.

"I'm actually quite surprised Sohma-sama let you order Gurichaya." The woman said in an attempt to continue a conversation with him, swallowing as she tried to keep up her calm façade. "Sohma-sama doesn't let _anyone_ so much as have a sniff of this, not even some our most _exclusive_ and loyal patrons, not even when they ask for it when they realise she has it."

Ren just hummed again in response as he watched her carefully pour the tea with practised ease, grateful that the tea was ready. He hoped that since she had finished preparing and pouring the tea she would just shut up and leave him alone. But of course, his hopes weren't answered when she didn't move and noticed her watching him from underneath her eyelashes her painted eyes hooded. She had tilted her head forward a little and continued to smile coyly as she carefully sized up Ren.

She watched Ren pick up his cup, trying to look further than the look of utter boredom on his youthful face, but her eyes were glued to the curious red lotus hua dian forehead marking. She had never seen anyone (women or girls) sporting such a makeup style (except maybe cosplayers) and thought it to be rather feminine (and strange) for a boy to have a flower painted just a centimetre or two above the middle of his brows. However, she thought that it, in a way, suited him. It added a certain charm to his face, made him look distinct (aside from his unusual mismatched eye colours). To her, it appeared that he was incredibly confident about his masculinity with enough quiet confidence to not care about what others thought about him (or his choice to either use makeup or (maybe) tattoo a flower on his face.

The woman thought such confidence in a young teen was interesting, but could also work in her favour. He may act and look indifferent now, but she believed that he had next no experience with the fairer sex. Even if he did, then his experiences with those _little_ _girls_ would pale in comparison to spending time with her. She had no plans of doing anything illegal with him, heavens no. But flirting was not illegal and she didn't see anything wrong with some _harmless flirting_ to gain the favour of a customer. And in this case she didn't care how feminine he looked or how cold of an exterior he had, he was a teenage _boy_ and like fully grown men was bound to be filled with _hormones_ and certain _desires_. She would simply flirt, just enough to make him aware that she _could_ help him with certain _feelings_ to gain his favour, like she did with other customers. And since he was special enough to Sohma-sama to drink _her_ reserved tea, she was ready to lay it on thick.

The woman steeled herself, mentally reminding herself that she _was_ attractive, that she was _desirable_ and tried to push away the fact that unless she initiated a conversation he had acted as though she wasn't even in the room. Well, that was going to end now and she was going to get his attention and favour one way or another, her pay check was depending on it.

"You know…" The woman said as she leaned on the table slightly, angling herself as best to display her figure (not that you could see it because of the kimono she was wearing). "Most patrons who have a private room to themselves tend to look rather lonely…in need of some… _company_."

"What are you saying exactly?" Ren asked her curtly, turning to face her as he brought the cup away from his lips. He was quickly losing his patience with this woman, who either hadn't noticed or didn't want to notice and laughed airily, smiling coyly at Ren through her eyelashes.

"There's no need to act so cold, I just thought you might be in need of some company." The woman said with a (notably forced) girlish giggle. 

"I asked for a private room with the intention of being left alone which just so happens to be what I want right now. To be alone." Ren replied flatly having lost his patience with the woman and her flirtatious act, but not his manners (yet). He wanted her to get the hint that he did not want to continue this conversation, or any conversation with her. "Why are you really here? Usually I get served tea and then I am left alone and in peace."

The woman simply laughed again, believing that a few more minutes in her presence would lead to his icy exterior melting as she lightly placed her hand on Ren's upper thigh and leaned closer to Ren as she spoke.

"What else would I be here for if not for you?" She asked him, her voice purring a little. "After all, what else can a _man_ and _woman_ do together when they are alone?" 

At this, Ren placed his cup on the table and placed a hand gently on top of hers as he leaned forward, looking gently and deeply into her dark brown eyes. For a moment the woman looked and felt victorious. She was slightly put out that he hadn't blushed the way she had expected him to, but he was showing interest now and that was the most important thing.

"I know that there a number of things a man and woman can do when they are alone." Ren said lowly and clearly in his usual drawl. 

"Oh really?" The woman asked, leaning closer to Ren, their faces just inches apart. It would be any second now, she thought. He would try to kiss her and then she would pull away and return to acting professional and distant. Then after enough some time had passed, she'd leave and then he'd beg to know her name before she'd gift it to him. After that he'll be hooked and he'll ask her to serve him tea again and again. Her popularity with other patrons would increase and then so would the money going into her pocket.

"Yes." Ren purred before his voice became cold and his once gentle hold on her hand tightened, pulling her hand off his thigh, but refusing to let go when she began to realise her mistake and tried to pull her hand away. The woman flinched and tried to recoil from Ren in fear from the expression on his face. She had realised that she had misjudged her target and was scared of what the price might be. Flirting with him in an attempt to manipulate him to her favour had been a _big_ mistake. "However, none of them include any _part_ of _you_ touching _me_. I have respected your wish to speak to me and I believe it's fair to say that you should respect my desire to be alone."

Ren leaned forward slightly as the woman continued to try to pull her hand away from him, leaning her body back, whimpers falling from her lips as she tried to put what little distance she could between them.

"Now leave." Ren hissed, releasing her suddenly, impassively watching as she fell backwards in a heap on the floor. The woman quickly crawled back towards the door to get away from him, stuttering out apologies for bothering him, for her actions as she scrambled to stand up and reached to the door.

Before the woman's shaking fingers could touch the screen door, it opened to reveal the Ochaya's owner, Akemi Sohma, who had come to see why one of the employees wasn't serving tea to another guest when she should have been.

Akemi Sohma raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow at the shaking and cowering woman, who ducked her head and stuttered out an apology and a jumbled excuse before rushing out of the room. She watched the woman run out of the room and down the hall before she turned to look at Ren, smiling a little in amusement at the look on Ren's face.

"I wonder what Sayuri did for you to have _that_ look on your face?" Akemi asked Ren as she slid the door closed and moved to sit next to Ren at a respectable distance. While she _did_ find his expression terrifying, she found it amusing on the basis that it was rare for him to have that particular look on his face. And she because she knew that look wasn't directed at her, so she was safe. 

"I apologise for whatever that girl has done to upset you so much." Akemi said as she cast her dark eyes to the table when Ren gave her an icy look, scolding herself for trying to make light of a subject that had angered him. She regretted even letting Sayuri serve Ren tea, knowing how particular Ren could be about privacy and wanting to be left in peace.

"Akemi." Ren greeted her courteously, his expression relaxing into his usual mask of indifference. "All will be forgiven, she didn't mean any harm, other than to be oblivious to the desires of others. I must admit that I didn't expect to be on the receiving end of such unwanted attention. I just don't appreciate being flirted with just so I can be used to curry favour and money for their selfish desires."

"I shouldn't have told her to greet you," Akemi said apologetically. "She has yet to learn the proper etiquette to use when serving some more of our particular patrons."

Ren waved off Akemi's apology, making the woman relax knowing that Ren didn't hold a grudge against her or her employee.

"Sayuri is a relatively new face around here." Akemi explained as she refilled Ren's cup. "She's nice enough I suppose, and rather popular with our male and some female guests." 

"I don't doubt that she is." Ren replied as he sipped his tea. "But, regardless of how good it may be for business, she will do well to learn that 'harmless flirting' is not always appreciated. She may one day find that she is on the receiving end of unwanted attention. She needs to learn when to leave well enough alone and to understand what boundaries are and the meaning of personal space."

"I will ensure that she is taught these things." Akemi said with a nod before smiling and laughing a little. "Although, I doubt _I'll_ need to teach her these things with her memory of meeting you, Ren. I don't think she'll forget it for a long time, and I'll be sure to remind her of what the consequences can be."

Ren just hummed in response, tilting his head forward slightly in a nod of satisfaction. Akemi's smile faded as she became serious, her back straightened slightly and her tone became business like when she spoke again.

"So, has the business with the Haruko's been dealt with?" Akemi asked. 

"Everything has been accounted for and put to rest, no ground was or will be given." Ren said casually closing his eyes and relaxing a little. After Ren said this, Akemi gave a little sigh of relief before an odd expression fell across her face as she looked at the person sat next to her.

"Why did you personally attend this case?" Akemi asked Ren, a strange emotion colouring her voice. "Do you have a soft spot for the 'Little Princess', enough for you to protect her? Or are you trying to be like Koenma's good little boys?"

Ren opened his eyes to look at Akemi and the strange expression that twisted her features. There was no doubt that Akemi Sohma was a beautiful young woman. Her appearance was what some people could say were befitting the beauty of legends: soft lily white skin, silky black hair, almond shaped eyes the colour of melted chocolate set in an oval face with a small button nose and a pert, full mouth. Wearing a simple, yet high quality luxurious kimono with intricate patterns and designs along with her relatively simplistic hair ornaments, it was clear that Akemi Sohma was well aware of her beauty and knew just how to accentuate it. At face value her appearance was simple enough for her to fit the role of the owner of the tea house, but to a well trained eye, one could see that she wasn't as simple as she appeared to be. 

"Why do ask or care?" Ren asked her in his usual drawl. "Are you jealous of the attention I gave Hana Haruko?"

"No." Akemi said with a scoff of derision. "I just want to know why you're acting like one of Koenma's good little boys all of a sudden." 

"What makes you think I was or have ever been 'good'?" Ren asked Akemi, raising a dark eyebrow. 

"Oh? So you weren't trying to be good?" Akemi shot back at Ren. The way she said it made it sound like more of an accusation rather than a question, making the corners of Ren's mouth curl up in amusement. Ren found the change in Akemi's attitude on the situation to be rather amusing. Usually she appeared calm and composed, demure and soft spoken with the unattainable air of a Geisha. But now she was practically wearing her heart on her sleeve, emotions dancing across her face, with different expressions morphing from one to another. Ren idly wondered how some of her long term patrons would feel about seeing this side of her. Would they be surprised that she would be willing to express herself so much? Or would their internal image of her be ruined by what they would possibly perceive to be flaws? Perhaps they would believe that they had a more intimate relationship with her, finding that her expressive nature made her more beautiful than before.

"Hm, I suppose that depends on which "side" you're standing on, how you perceive my actions. To you I acted similarly to Koenma's 'good boys' but to them I was acting like a cold blooded killer, and I suppose to Hana Haruko I was a 'hero' of sorts." Ren answered eventually, which made Akemi huff in irritation at Ren's words, thinking that he was teasing her. "If you really think about it the 'good' and 'bad' are just labels that are purely subjective in nature that depends solely on what 'side' you are on, the timeframe and what kind of society you live in. It depends on what you believe your morals to be; which are a construction by society on what they deem to be 'right' and 'wrong'. A villain could be considered 'good' just as much as a hero can be considered 'bad', one person's hero is another's villain. Labels like 'good' and 'bad', 'right' and 'wrong' are, in a sense, unreliable constructs which I don't subscribe to. I simply acted and did what was required of me in order to fulfil the role that was requested of me." 

Akemi's expression calmed as relief flooded her system. She let out a sigh of relief knowing that Ren wasn't and hadn't changed. That he hadn't thrown away his ideals or morals (if one could call them that) for a girl, a toddler prince and his group of misfits. That years of hiding in the guise and skin of a human hadn't softened him into one of _them_. Akemi slumped a little and tried not to think or question exactly why she had felt panic creeping and rising within her when she had heard that Ren was being a "good" boy and obediently listening to and following Koenma's orders.

"Besides," Ren continued. "Reikai is so slow it could very well have been months before they made any progress. I didn't want to be stuck babysitting a child when I have better and more important things to do."

Hearing Ren's last comment, Akemi couldn't help but laugh with relief, her hand instinctively going to cover her mouth, shaking her head slightly for doubting Ren. Whatever lingering doubt she had had was washed away with Ren's dismissive tone when he spoke about Reikai and by extension whoever was working for them.

"Why _did_ you ask, Akemi? It's not like you to get so…emotional about matters such as this. In fact I'd say you sounded rather…hostile, almost jealous about this whole situation." Ren asked Akemi, his amused smile still in place as he sipped on his tea, eyes watching Akemi, careful to catch every nuance and flicker of emotion.

Akemi's smile slide off her face, her brow furrowing as she looked down, as if troubled by something. She bit the inside of her lip as she considered what she should tell him, her lips down turned. Looking back up at Ren, she leaned forward and cupped Ren's face in her soft hands.

"It's just…" She began, her bottom lip quivered a little as she answered him. "Seeing you like this way, in this form. In this human form. It's so unsettling to see you like this. In this weakened form, and when I compare you now to your former glory before Reikai…"

Akemi's eyes filled with bitter tears, her handshaking slightly as Ren turned away, as she trailed off, swallowing thickly. Ren simply sighed, as if he was rejecting her belief of his so called 'former glory'. Hearing this, Akemi blinked away her tears, forcing Ren to look at her, as she held his face firmly in her hands.

"It's true! Don't deny it! Don't try to defend _them_ , when it's their fault that you've been reduced to _this!_ " Akemi hissed fiercely, her bitterness becoming mixed in with her anger. Her slender fingers bit into Ren's cheeks, as her shaking hands transformed into shining white bones. The soft skin of her face was replaced by smooth bone and rotting flesh.

"The flesh, this flesh, human flesh and bodies are _so weak!"_ Akemi hissed out in bitterness and anger, tears falling from her eye sockets and rolling down her cheekbones.

"The fact that you think this way and believe this shows to me just how human you really are, even centuries after your transformation." Ren said calmly as Akemi's nails bit into his cheeks for a moment before easing the pressure on his skin and slipping off his face. "Human bodies, the flesh, spirit energy and souls are more resilient than people think. Human spirit energy, for example, is much stronger than youki or the spirit energy of an apparition, discounting of course apparitions and demons who are strong enough to elevate into 'godlike' status and power. Human souls, or to be more precise, souls which reside in mortal bodies burn and are the brightest, similarly to giant stars in space. Burning brightly, quickly and beautifully until they burn out and die. It is probably because of the short nature of a human's life that their spirit energy is so much stronger than ordinary apparitions."

"I didn't mean to say humans are inherently weak." Akemi sighed, sounding a little mournful. "It's just that human life is so precious and their bodies are so easily damaged. Their lives can easily hang from a thread before it's quickly snuffed out."

"You know, you used to look rather bitter whenever you thought about your human life." Ren said carefully watching the emotions that rana cross Akemi's face as he drank the rest of the tea. "It's good to know that 7 centuries is long enough for someone to make amends with their past."

"It took me 7 centuries to realise that after so long, all my bitterness and hate had brought me nothing but more pain. No pleasure, or peace. No relief. It didn't give what I had desired so much after my death. I realised that I was still thinking like a mortal, so consumed with what I believed the world had done to wrong me to see where my place in the world was." Akemi said with a humourless laugh which led to a few minutes of silence, allowing them both to reflect upon their lot in life.

"So," Ren said after a while. "Is there any news I should be aware of?"

"It's nothing you don't already know." Akemi replied easily, relieved that Ren's words had brought an end to the silent sadness that had surrounded her and pulled her back into the present, reminding her that Ren's visit was for business, as it always was. Ren's visits were never a social one, all for business and never for pleasure…at least not when his request to be alone was paired with Giruchaya tea, his way of asking for a business meeting.

"I see…I'll report back when I can." Ren said as he stood up to leave and Akemi stood up and saw him out.

After Ren had left the Ochaya, Akemi returned to the private room, Ren's private room to put away the tea set, thinking over what Ren said. After a few minutes of contemplation, she could help but laugh. She sat down and held her head in her hands, covering her face as her body shook in a mixture of laughter and tears.

"7oo years in isolation and you haven't changed." She murmured to herself and wiped away the tears that had rolled down her cheeks. "I don't think I'll ever understand you, or your fascination with humans."


	14. Chapter 14 An Extended Invitation

Chapter 14: An extended invitation:

It had been a week since the Haruko case had been resolved and ever since that case Ren had noticed that Koenma had, based on the reports given to Koenma by his (Koenma's) spies, become even more suspicious of Ren's actions. However, rather paradoxically, Koenma had appeared to have reduced the number of spies he had had employed to "observe" Ren. Ren thought that the reasons for this decision on Koenma's behalf, was either because Koenma had actually found competent and qualified spies (capable of escaping Ren's notice and suspicion) who could do their job properly. Or Koenma had found a new source of worry (beyond Ren) to spend sleepless nights thinking about. Out of the two possibilities Ren (and Genkai) believed the reason for Koenma's decision, on the balance of probability, to be due to the latter option.

Although Koenma's hired (found through actual job applications and interviews) spies had all but disappeared, Ren also noticed that Hiei (and on some occasions Kurama) had increasingly began to shadow Ren. He sensed their spirit energy metres away, or just on the fringes of crowds in the streets. Rather than finding their actions (potential stalking) irritating, Ren found it somewhat amusing. He understood their wariness and paranoia towards himself and his actions. However Ren had originally thought that the two demon and more intelligent (in regards to Kurama more than Hiei) members of the Reikai Tantei, that they would have been capable to see past their paranoia long enough to understand that Ren had no intention nor plan to do anything in opposition towards them or Reikai. Besides if Ren _had_ any such inclination, he would have already acted upon it before they had even began their search for him for Koenma. Ren believed that, in the grand scale of things, Hiei and Kurama's suspicions and paranoia were an unnecessary waste of time and energy.

Between reading the textbook in front of him and Ren's absent musing of current goings on in Reikai and the other members of the Reikai Tantei, Ren was so absorbed in his thoughts that he almost didn't notice someone approach his table in the library he was sat in. Sensing someone walking closer and once their shadow eclipsed the florescent light, Ren looked up to see the very tall Younger Toguro staring down through his dark sunglasses at him.

"Is this seat taken?" The Younger Toguro asked quietly in his deep voice, indicating to the vacant seat across from Ren. Since the Younger Toguro was very tall and Ren was considerable shorter than him (and sat down) Ren was forced to crane his neck in order to look carefully at the Younger Toguro and spent a moment conserving whether he should let the man sit down. After a moment of consideration Ren silently gestured for the Younger Toguro to sit down and as the towering man pulled the wooden chair out, Ren also gestured to a nearby sign that asked for silence in the library. Toguro's face remained impassive as he read the sign and then looked back at Ren. He did not seem impressed at the reminder from Ren.

"I hope you realise that this is _not_ a social visit." The Younger Toguro said stoically after a few moments of sitting silently as Ren, for all intents and purposes, ignored Toguro in favour of reading his textbook. Ren, in reply, nodded absently, unbothered by the Younger Toguro's staring and presence.

"Of course," Ren replied, as he glanced up at the Younger Toguro. "You're not exactly the social visit kind of person, potentially internally self-recriminating over things and events beyond your control perhaps, and a little too focused on the prospect of death and he status of (your own) humanity, but no, you're not a social visit kind of person."

Ren's words made Toguro stare down hard at the person sat across from him, sunglasses glinting dangerously in the florescent lights. Ren could feel Toguro's _displeasure_ at his words and daring. However even under Toguro's hard stare and sensing a subtle shift and change in his demonic energy, Ren continued to sit calmly and expectantly waiting for Toguro to tell him the reason behind the visit.

After sitting silently, Toguro stopped glaring down at Ren, realising that Ren wouldn't be so easily intimidated. Toguro's jaw clenched as he contemplated his next words and looked around the library. Unsurprisingly it was practically empty since it was the middle of the night.

"It's getting closer to that time of year." The Younger Toguro said, leaning back a little in his seat, while Ren inclined his head in a nod and made a sound of agreement.

"Indeed. It's around the time that my mother and father would be getting ready to harvest the peaches and last year's fruit wines should be ready to drink." Ren replied with a soft and gentle smile.

Toguro simply stared at Ren, not amused with his response. He suspected that Ren was purposefully acting dumb and pretending to misunderstand his meaning. Seeing that Toguro was not in the mood for anything but business, Ren sighed. His expression changed, and returned to looking bored and disinterested

"I assume that _they_ now know of your continued existence?" Ren asked. Toguro's lips twitched a little as he smirked down at Ren.

"Sakyo has invited Yusuke Urameshi and his friends to the honorary guest team this year." Toguro replied, as he watched Ren carefully for his reaction. Ren appeared to be apathetic to the news and seemed to be a little impatient, as though he wanted the "visit" to be over so he could continue with his studies.

"Sakyo has decided to extend the same invitation to you." Toguro said with a smirk, and watched in amusement as Ren seemed to go completely still before blinking and glancing up at Toguro. "Your invitation as the fifth member of Team Urameshi is optional, but a strong fifth fighter would be in their best interest."

What little interest Ren appeared to have had in the conversation disappeared as his attention returned to his textbook. Toguro frowned down at him at his apparent ease and apathy towards his so called team mates, considering the fact that Ren was supposed to be a vital member of the Reikai Tantei, to help Yusuke Urameshi in his missions and whatever tasks assigned to him by Reikai. Toguro had thought that Ren would have shown at least some sign of concern for his teammates, or at least some interest in the up and coming tournament. Yet Ren was sat in front him, acting as though this news was of nothing of interest to him. Toguro's eyebrows twitched closer together in a slight frown but continued none the less, it wouldn't do if Team Urameshi failed to find a fifth member and was disqualified before they could even enter the tournament.

"Sakyo believes this year's tournament will prove to be quite interesting. A demon ninja sect has joined the tournament this year." Said Toguro, who didn't truly believe that Ren felt nothing for his team.

Hearing this, Ren raised an eyebrow in disbelief because ninja's were supposed to work in the shadows and in secret as they always had. It was strange to hear that a "ninja" sect had suddenly decided to join a very public tournament.

"It doesn't matter whether or not a team has five capable fighters or just one capable fighter in order to carry the team; its common knowledge in this tournament that "accidents" happen. Win or lose, teams have a tendency to die inside and outside of the ring." Ren said, barely paying any attention to Toguro in favour of the textbook in front of him. "Regardless of who or what the opposing teams are, the tournament remains the same. It's still mindless violence and a thinly veiled excuse for the rich to get richer and financially ruin their rivals. It's not exactly riveting entertainment."

"And Urameshi needs a fifth team mate in order to enter the tournament." Toguro reminded Ren stoically.

' _Or you will kill him.'_ Ren thought. _'Or so you claim.'_

"You and Sakyo needn't worry about Yusuke finding a fifth member." Ren said with a curt smile, speaking if only to humour the Younger Toguro. "Even without me joing them and even if Kurama and Hiei fail to find a fifth fighter; then Koenma will undoubtedly find a competent fighter to join them from either in this world or Reikai. Perhaps it would make for an actually an interesting or even an enlightening tournament."

"We'll see." Toguro said with a smirk, his sunglasses glinting as he titled his head slightly.

"Hm, yes, I'm sure you and Sakyo will." Ren agreed in disinterest, his curt smile dropping.

"And so will you." Said Toguro, his voice full of promise, as if knowing that Ren would indeed be witness to the Dark Tournament. He then stood up and left without another word as Ren looked up and glared at the man's retreating figure. Ren's hands curled into fists as he turned Toguro's words over in his mind.


End file.
